Northern Endurance Partnership has begun offshore work on its 136 km CO₂ pipeline following the arrival of Saipem’s pipelay vessel Castorone in the Southern North Sea.

The 325 m-long Castorone will lay the pipeline linking industry in Teesside and the Humber with the Endurance storage site beneath the North Sea. The infrastructure will carry captured CO₂ to the site for permanent storage.

The offshore phase follows the earlier arrival of linepipe at the Port of Hartlepool. With Castorone now in the Southern North Sea, the pipe is beginning to be installed on the seabed.

Almost 3,000 tonnes of marine biofuel will be used by Castorone during the offshore campaign to reduce emissions from construction activities.

Sonardyne environmental monitoring technology will gather seabed data and monitor the surrounding marine environment during the project. The information will be used to support continued assessment of storage safety at the Endurance site.

Rich Denny, Managing Director of Northern Endurance Partnership, said the vessel’s arrival follows the delivery of linepipe to Hartlepool and the move into offshore installation.

The pipeline forms part of the East Coast Cluster and is intended to provide CO₂ transport infrastructure for industry in Teesside and the Humber.