Flotable subsea platform (FSP)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9254894-B2
Application number	US-201414178055-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 11, 2014
Priority date	Feb 19, 2013
Publication date	Feb 9, 2016
Grant date	Feb 9, 2016

Abstract

A subsea facility for hydrocarbon recovery in deep waters and methods of installation are provided. More specifically, the subsea facility equipment is on multiple modules equipped with a buoyancy system to allow the modules to sink to the sea floor. The modules can be attached and unattached to each other, thus allowing for a module to be raised to the surface for repairs without affecting the rest of the subsea facility.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of installing a floatable subsea platform on a sea floor, comprising:
providing a subplatform base, a plurality of connectable modules with subsea equipment positioned on each module, and a buoyancy system with at least one buoyancy tank operably connected to a buoyancy control assembly;
latching the plurality of connectable modules to the subplatform base;
towing the subplatform base with the plurality of connectable modules by a barge to a sea bottom oil site, wherein the buoyancy system floats the subplatform in water during the towing after the latching;
wherein the subplatform base is placed in a moon pool of the barge and is hence disposed in water and surrounded by the barge while being towed;
mooring a template to the sea floor at the sea bottom oil site;
lowering the subplatform base to the template using the buoyancy system; and
latching the subplatform base to the template.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subsea equipment is different on a first one of the plurality of connectable modules than a second one of the plurality of connectable modules.

Assignees

• Conocophillips Co

Inventors

• Gu Zhihao George
• Petrash Chad A
• Grgas Ivica T
• Phadke Amal C
• Berta Dominique P

Classifications

• E21B43/01 Primary

  specially adapted for obtaining from underwater installations · CPC title

• B63B35/44 Primary

  Floating buildings, stores, drilling platforms, or workshops, e.g. carrying water-oil separating devices {(construction methods for floating offshore platforms B63B75/00)} · CPC title

• B63B21/50

  Anchoring arrangements {or methods} for special vessels, e.g. for floating drilling platforms or dredgers · CPC title

• E21B19/002

  specially adapted for underwater drilling (E21B19/09, E21B19/143 take precedence) · CPC title

• B63B2035/448

  Floating hydrocarbon production vessels, e.g. Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels [FPSO] · CPC title