Buoyant guyed tower
This patent describes an apparatus for supporting an offshore drilling and production platform comprising: a tower adapted to be mounted in an operative, generally upright position of the sea bottom and to extend upwardly to a location above the mean water level of the sea, the upper end of the tower adapted to be coupled to the platform in supporting relationship thereof; and a plurality of guy lines coupled to the tower near the upper end thereof and adapted to extend outwardly and downwardly therefrom in a number of different directions, the lower ends of the guy lines adapted to be anchored in the sea bottom; the tower having a plurality of legs, each of the legs being tubular and having a buoyant chamber for exerting a buoyant resorting force on the tower when the tower is in the operative position; there being a number of tubular piles extending into and through each leg, each pile being secured at its upper end to the corresponding leg near the upper end of the leg, each pile extending outwardly and downwardly from the lower end of the corresponding leg, whereby the lower ends of the piles can extend into the sea bottom when the tower is in the operative position; each pile adapted to receive a well extending downwardly from the platform when the platform is mounted on and supported by the upper end of the tower, each well adapted to extend into the sea bottom for production of resources from a location below the sea bottom.
- Assignee:
- Bechtel International Corp., San Francisco, CA
- Patent Number(s):
- US 4599014
- OSTI ID:
- 5300142
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
03 NATURAL GAS
030300 -- Natural Gas-- Drilling
Production
& Processing
42 ENGINEERING
420206 -- Engineering-- Mining & Drilling Equipment & Facilities-- (1980-1989)
423000 -- Engineering-- Marine Engineering-- (1980-)
DESIGN
FOUNDATIONS
MECHANICAL STRUCTURES
MOORINGS
NATURAL GAS WELLS
OFFSHORE PLATFORMS
OIL WELLS
OPERATION
POSITIONING
SEA BED
SUPPORTS
TOWERS
WELLS