Patent ID: 7001234

Claim:
A marine riser system for transferring fluid between a plurality of mutually separated locations on the seabed and a vessel floating on the surface of the sea, the riser system comprising: (a) submerged buoy, (b) a like plurality of risers each suspended from the buoy and extending from the buoy in mutually different directions to a respective one of the locations on the sea bed whereby differently acting directions of riser-weight-applied pull on the buoy tend to keep the buoy horizontally between the locations, the vessel floating substantially above the submerged buoy, (c) a like plurality of flexible conduits extending from the vessel to the submerged buoy, (d) a respective connector carried by the submerged buoy and connecting the lower end of the respective flexible conduit to the upper end of one of the risers; and (e) wherein the risers are each suspended from the buoy by means of a respective flexible link.