Water that is produced during offshore hydrocarbon processing, such as hot
produced water accompanying hydrocarbons taken from subsea reservoirs, or
cold water resulting from heating LNG (liquified natural gas) to convert
it to gas, is changed in temperature to be closer to that of the
surrounding sea using apparatus of minimal cost. The apparatus includes a
mixer tube (52) that lies totally submerged in the sea and a nozzle (54)
that receives the produced water and that has a nozzle end (76) lying in
a middle portion of the mixer tube. A location of the mixer tube middle
portion at the nozzle end has an inside diameter (A) much larger than the
nozzle end outside diameter (B) to induce the through flow of sea water
from the surrounding sea through the mixer tube. The produced water is
pumped to a high enough pressure to create turbulence in the mixer tube
immediately downstream of the nozzle end to better mix the produced and
sea waters.