SBM

SBM (single buoy mooring) is an offshore loading or discharge terminal where a tanker moors to a single floating buoy and weathervanes freely around it, used where water depth or wave climate rules out a jetty. The common type is the CALM (catenary anchor leg mooring): a large buoy held by catenary chains to seabed anchors, with the tanker connected by hawsers and cargo passing through floating and subsea hoses to a pipeline manifold (a PLEM) on the seabed. The single connection point lets the moored ship swing head to wind, current, and swell, cutting environmental load on the moorings. SBMs serve crude export and import terminals offshore, governed by OCIMF design and operating guidance.