초록 ▼

An apparatus and corresponding method of use extracts, cools, and transports effluents from subterranean, sub-sea oil formations to distant shore based processing facilities. The effluents, mostly crude oil, are conveyed rapidly to a cold flow generator near the oil wellhead on the sea bottom using

An apparatus and corresponding method of use extracts, cools, and transports effluents from subterranean, sub-sea oil formations to distant shore based processing facilities. The effluents, mostly crude oil, are conveyed rapidly to a cold flow generator near the oil wellhead on the sea bottom using the cold seawater to chill the effluents to a dispersed mixture including generated solids. The mixture is transported close to sea bottom temperatures, slowly, with small pressure drops, in low-cost submerged bare pipes over long distances to on or near shore processing facilities that can produce useful hydrocarbon products more cost effectively than at sea processing facilities. The apparatus eliminates or minimizes the need for heated or insulated pipe, the need for large floating processing structures, the need for sub-sea processing equipment, and/or the need for chemical additions to production flow.

대표청구항 ▼

What is claimed is: 1. An apparatus for extracting, cooling, and transporting effluents produced by an undersea well, comprising:a formation effluent extraction device;a cold flow generator coupled with the formation effluent extraction device; anda transporting connectors coupled with an on shore o

What is claimed is: 1. An apparatus for extracting, cooling, and transporting effluents produced by an undersea well, comprising:a formation effluent extraction device;a cold flow generator coupled with the formation effluent extraction device; anda transporting connectors coupled with an on shore or near shore processing facility;wherein the transporting connectors couples the cold flow generator and the processing facility together, such that effluents extracted from the undersea well are cooled by the cold flow generator and transported to the processing facility for processing;wherein the on shore or near shore processing facility is substantially more proximal to the shore relative to the undersea well,wherein the formation effluent extraction device is coupled to the cold flow generator at an extracting connector, and the cold flow generator is coupled to the processing facility with the transporting connector, andwherein an average inner cross-sectional area dimension of the transporting connector is greater than an average inner cross-sectional area dimension of the extracting connector.