Today's compliant towers have their roots in work carried forward by Exxon Production Research (EPR), starting with observations of a 110-metre-high, one-sixth scale "model" that stood in the US Gulf of Mexico from October 1975 to June 1979.
That first Exxon model was actually of a guyed tower -- in other words a compliant tower with added guy lines.
An array of 12 such lines radiated out from it with each one incorporated into a clump weight about three-fifths of the way out to its seabed anchor pile.
