A mooring assembly for a vessel includes a turret with a lower receptacle cone receiving a buoy, mooring lines attached to the buoy, and risers. The buoy includes a plurality of pivot legs positioned on a lower part of the buoy, wherein the legs are pivotably connected to the buoy through a horizontally extending pivot axis to pivot in a radial plane with respect to the buoy between a first position with the buoy in the cone of the turret, in which the legs extend mainly vertically downwards and engage an inner surface of the cone, and a second position with the buoy outside of the cone, in which the legs extend mainly horizontally outwards. The lines are attached to the legs and each leg has such a length that in the first position its end is located at a level below the lowermost end of the cone.

A disconnectable mooring system for offshore semi-submersible floating structures. A disconnectable buoy has a number of mooring lines which include a buoy chain between the mooring chain and the buoy. The mooring chain and the buoy chain are connected via a three way mooring connector, with the third connection configured to pull the mooring connector to a mooring point on the structure. In a first configuration the buoy is disconnected and supports the mooring chains for recovery at shallow depths to be pulled in. In a second configuration, the mooring lines are pulled in via the mooring connectors thereby providing a spread mooring to the structure with the buoy chain left as a catenary between the buoy and mooring point.

A system for transporting hydrocarbons from reserves located under the sea floor to a turret connected to a hydrocarbon production vessel floating at the sea surface, the hydrocarbons being transferred through at least one rigid catenary riser extending from the sea floor to a buoy, the system for transporting hydrocarbons includes an upper section of the at least one substantially rigid riser directly attached to the buoy and provided with fairings, a middle section of the rigid riser is provided with buoyancy modules so to give it a lazy wave shape and a lower section of the substantially rigid riser is in contact with the seafloor at a distance X from the buoy vertical axis that is smaller than a distance Y between the buoy vertical axis and the mooring lines anchoring elements.

A connector or connector assembly (10, 210), such as a subsea or underwater connector or assembly including a first member (18, 218) movably connected or connectable to a second member (36, 236) and a first inductive element (24, 224a) provided on the first member (18, 218), the first inductive element (24, 224a) being arranged for inductive transmission and/or reception with a second inductive element (42, 242a) of the second member (36, 236). The first member (18, 218) may rotatably or pivotably connected or connectable to the second member (36, 236). The first inductive element (24, 224a) may be arranged on the first member (18, 218) to maintain inductive transmission with the second inductive element (42, 242a) of the second member (36, 236) throughout movement of the first member (18, 218) relative to a second member (36, 236).

An offloading system for conveying hydrocarbons from a buoyancy-supported subsea riser to a surface tanker vessel comprises a flexible hose that hangs from the riser structure in a U-shape having first and second limbs. An upper end of the first limb communicates with the riser and an upper end of the second limb terminates in a pulling head for connecting the hose to the tanker. A clump weight acts on a lowermost bend of the hose between the limbs to maintain tension in the limbs. A subsurface holder fixed to the riser structure is arranged to hold the pulling head against the tension in the second limb of the hose when the system is in a standby state. The holder is offset laterally from a central longitudinal axis of the riser structure and a counterweight is positioned to a side of that axis opposed to the holder.

A mooring assembly for attaching a vessel to a subsea well including a well conductor, the mooring assembly comprising: (a) a housing for the well conductor; (b) a base defining an interface for a subsea ground surface; and (c) a rotatably mounted vessel attachment point; wherein, in use, a vessel moored to the subsea well is capable of rotational movement around the subsea well.

A mooring system for mooring a vessel floating on a surface of a body of water. In some embodiments, the system can include a base structure configured to be secured to a seabed, a yoke configured to be pivotably connected at a first end to the base structure about an axis of the base structure, a weight connected to the yoke, a turntable that can include a rotating part configured to be disposed on the vessel and a fixed part, a link arm that can include a first end configured to be connected to a second end of the yoke and/or the weight and a second end configured to be connected to the fixed part of the turntable such that the vessel is rotatable with respect to the link arm about a central axis of the turntable.

A system for temporarily connecting an underwater station arranged on the bed of a body of water and a surface facility has an elongated conducting member with one end connected to the underwater station and one free end selectively and temporarily connectable to the surface facility; a marker buoy; and a cable connected to the free end of the elongated conducting member and to the marker buoy to quickly recover the free end of the elongated conductor element when it is necessary to connect the underwater station via the elongated conducting member to the surface facility.

A flexible pipe system includes an unbonded flexible pipe connected to a floating vessel and a sensor system with an optical fibre integrated in the unbonded flexible pipe. Interrogating equipment transmits optical signals into the fibre, receives optical signals reflected from the fibre and detects a parameter of the unbonded flexible pipe. A turret connects the flexible pipe rotationally to the floating vessel via a swivel device that provides a fluid transfer passage between the turret and the vessel. The interrogating equipment is arranged on the turret and is further configured to transfer signals indicative of the detected parameter to receiving equipment on the floating vessel. In this way, optical signals reflected from the fibre can reach the interrogating equipment without distortion in the swivel, so that parameters can be detected with sufficient quality also for floating vessels equipped with a turret mooring system.

The invention concerns a vessel (1) for storing and/or producing hydrocarbons and a buoyant turret buoy (6) to be connected to the vessel (1). The outer surface of the bow (2) of the vessel (1) comprises a receiving structure (5) for connecting a buoyant turret buoy (6) to the bow (2). The main part of the receiving structure (5) protrudes from the lower part (4) of the bow (2) in the vessel's (1) direction of travel and an interface of the receiving structure (5) is complementary to an interface of a connecting section (17) of the buoyant turret buoy (6). Further the lower part (4) of the bow (2) is below the water line (w) during connection of the buoyant turret buoy (6) at sea. The invention also concerns a method for connecting the buoyant turret buoy (6) to receiving structure (5) of the vessel (1).