KEY PARAMETERS

700-900MT

MASS

20M

BUOY OUTER DIAMETER

10M

BUOY HEIGHT

13

COMPARTMENTS

The LMC deep water offloading buoy has a number of key features that are considered imperative to the safety and operational uptime of the complete buoy system, attached vessel and surrounding environment.

  • Turntable designed to reduce out of plane bending stresses

  • Circular hull designed to improve the motions and characteristics

  • Skirt system optimised to improve the motions and absorb impact from berthing tanker collisions

  • Automatic bearing lubrication system to reduce the risk of bearing failure and reduce maintenance operations

  • Bearing triplex redundancy to permit change out of bearing segment in case of damage

  • Remotely operated Emergency Shut Down Valves (ESDVs) using portable telemetry units on the nearby FPSO

  • Double axis chain stoppers to reduce the out of plane bending stresses on mooring chain connections

  • Chain tension monitoring system

  • Buoy swivel design similar to turret buoys that have been proven in operation

Deep Water Offloading Buoys

As the oil and gas industry moves towards deeper water discoveries, there now exists the requirement for an offloading buoy design suitable for the same water depths

Accordingly, LMC has extended its range of products to include a deep-water offloading buoy design, suitable for water depths up to 2000m. 

The deep water offloading buoy is able to withstand the 100-year met-ocean conditions of West Africa.  During offloading, the buoy is designed to be capable of safely mooring a VLCC during a 3.5 m Hs (typical 1-year and squall conditions for West Africa).

The deep water offloading buoy is a complex system of components with strong mechanical coupling between each.  LMC has completed a comprehensive design development programme to address the industry lessons learned and ensure that the complex loadings are all accounted for in a fully coupled dynamic system.