Patent ID: 7963721

Claim:
An apparatus to traverse an undersea escarpment, comprising: a subsea pipeline constructed to carry fluids across the undersea escarpment between a top of the escarpment and a bottom of the escarpment; wherein: said pipeline comprising at least one distributed buoyancy region; said pipeline comprising a first unbuoyed pipeline section extending from the top of the escarpment on a sea floor to said distributed buoyancy region and a second unbuoyed pipeline section extending from said distributed buoyancy region to the bottom of the escarpment on the sea floor; and said distributed buoyancy region comprising two or more spatially arranged discrete buoyancy solutions directly attached to said distributed buoyancy region to create a positively buoyant inverse catenary section connecting said first and second pipeline sections in fluid communication when said distributed buoyancy solutions are located below the waterline; and a flexure control device disposed at the top of the escarpment and located between said first unbuoyed pipeline section and said distributed buoyancy region, wherein the distributed buoyancy region rises above the flexure control device at the top of the escarpment before connecting to the second unbuoyed pipeline section.