Important milestone for APL Mooring and Loading Systems group.

The floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) vessel Hilli Episeyo, owned and operated by Golar LNG, was successfully connected to NOV’s Submerged SAL with Yoke (SSY) in December 2017. This is the first SSY delivered and marks an important milestone for our APL Mooring and Loading Systems group.

The SSY is designed to permanently moor ships and floating structures that are producing and storing hydrocarbons in shallow waters, with depths ranging from 20 to 50 m. The SSY is comprised of an anchor base, which is fixed to the seabed by means of driven anchor piles, and a triangular yoke structure to which the mooring chains are connected via bespoke receptacles.

The yoke structure is pre-ballasted to ensure adequate restoring forces to control vessel movements in any weather scenario. The SSY allows the Hilli Episeyo to passively weather vane and incorporates pipework, valves, swivel, and a flexible riser to enable natural gas import to the vessel for liquefaction. LNG will subsequently be offloaded to LNG carriers for export to the market.

Hilli Episeyo is the world’s first converted FLNG unit. The vessel was designed for a liquefaction capacity of approximately 2.4 million tons of LNG per year and will operate in benign conditions offshore Kribi, Cameroon for Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures and Perenco Cameroon.

NOV is proud to be a part of this landmark development and looks forward to continued and trusted partnership, serving our customers with innovative floating production systems technologies.