Patent ID: 8534365

Claim:
A leak containment system, suitable for operation at an undersea leak site of a leakage fluid including any one or more of oil and gas from a sea floor wellhead into sea water, comprising: a series of a plurality of interconnected canopies, each canopy being of material impervious to fluid transfer and with predetermined openings in the canopy material for fluid passage between an interior and an exterior of the canopy; the series of canopies being weighted sufficiently for descent by gravity through the sea water for placement of a first canopy over the leak site and each successively upward canopy in the series being atop a lower canopy; each canopy being formed as, or being expandable into, a dome-like configuration with a peripheral bottom that is open and has one or more of the predetermined openings at or near the bottom allowing displacement of a quantity of the sea water from the interior to the exterior of the canopy by reason of entry of the leakage fluid and rising of the leakage fluid within the canopy; each respective canopy of the series that has another canopy atop the respective canopy having at least one of the predetermined openings formed at a top portion thereof for leakage fluid to rise from a lower canopy into a next higher canopy; an uppermost one of the series of canopies being provided with a conduit for transfer of the leakage fluid to an above sea level location.