January 15, 1977 - Maritime Reporter and Engineering News

Exxon Awards IMODCO Contract To Construct Offshore Facility

IMODCO, Inc., 10960 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, Calif.

90024, pioneer designers and developers of offshore marine terminal systems, has received an important new contract from Exxon USA for a Santa Barbara Channel project and a letter of intent from Societe Entrepose- GTM, Paris, France, for a project in the Cameroons, West-Central Africa. The announcement was made by Jerome Ottmar, president of Amtel, Inc. (NYSE), the parent company of IMODCO.

Contract prices were not disclosed.

The Exxon award was for the engineering and construction of a single anchor leg mooring (SALM) offshore terminal sys- tem to be installed in the Santa Barbara Channel 20 miles west of Santa Barbara, Calif.

It will be used to permanently moor a storage and treating vessel in 440 feet of water more than three miles offshore. The storage and treating facility will be connected to Exxon's 850-foot Hondo production platform by an underwater pipeline system. The oil and water emulsion will be piped from the platform to the offshore storage and treating facility, where the crude oil will be separated from the water, stabilized and stored onboard the vessel. The processed crude will then be transferred to a tanker for shipment to refineries.

Although there are presently more than 150 single point mooring systems in service throughout the world, the Exxon SALM system will be the first to be used in U.S. waters. The terminal will be the sturdiest ever engineered, due to stringent earthquake design criteria.

The SALM concept was originally developed by Exxon for deepwater use. IMODCO is a licensee of the SALM technology.

The deepwater SALM system consists basically of a large surface buoy, a riser connecting the buoy to a base, and a base anchoring the entire terminal to the ocean floor. The permanently moored vessel will be connected to the buoy by a 150-foot rigid mooring yoke.

Current plans call for installation to begin in August, with startup of the facility scheduled for mid-1978.

The Societe Entrepose-GTM letter of intent is for the engineering and construction of a single point mooring terminal to be sited offshore from the Cameroons in the Kole Field. To be fabricated in France and transported to the Cameroons in May, the terminal will be anchored in 80 feet of water. It is to be designed to withstand 44-knot winds, 20-foot waves and a 2-knot current.

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