system for under water storage and the port of crude oil from wells.

摘要

Petroleum is transferred to or from an oil tanker by positioning the tanker directly above a petroleum storage reservoir or a distribution terminal installed on the sea bed, maintaining it in this position, unwinding a flexible pipe for connecting the tanker to the reservoir or terminal, guiding a connector element on the free end of the pipe towards a further connector using an automatic guiding system, joining the two connectors, thus automatically permitting petroleum to flow through the connexion, delivering it in the flexible pipe through a suitable orifice in the bottom of and halway along the tanker, and allowing the petroleum to pass from the reservoir to the tanker or from the tanker to the terminal by pumping. The underwater storage reservoir is well below the level affected by storms etc. and cannot form a navigational hazard. Petroleum can be delivered to storage at all times whatever the surface conditions. The petroleum can be transferred to the tanker without the use of pumps, by utilising hydrostatic pressure. The system is particularly useful in deep water and for oil wells at long distances from a land base.