Jack-up vessel off Redcar coast in Teesside conducting survey work for East Coast Cluster CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure
- Surveys are underway to collect data which will inform engineering plans for the East Coast Cluster CO2 transportation and storage network.
- The jack-up vessel will be located off the coast of Redcar, having already conducted surveys off the Humberside coast.
- The work is a vital milestone in transforming Teesside into world class low carbon hub.
The East Coast Cluster (ECC), a world leading initiative to decarbonise the industrial heartlands of Teesside and the Humber, took a step forward today as nearshore survey work commenced off Redcar, Teesside.
Lankelma are conducting the works on behalf of the Northern Endurance Partnership – the CO2 transportation and storage company that underpins the East Coast Cluster. The work on Teesside follows similar surveys recently carried out off Easington, Humberside.
The exploratory surveys will inform engineering plans for pipelines connecting the ECC onshore CO2 transportation and storage network with the offshore Endurance Carbon Store, located 145km offshore in the Southern North Sea. Once complete, the network could transport and store up to 10 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually from power generation and industrial businesses in the Teesside region, as well as helping to kick-start the Hydrogen economy.
As part of the survey programme, Lankelma’s jack-up vessel named Sandpiper will be positioned near to the shoreline and will conduct a geotechnical survey, including taking boreholes samples of seabed soil and rock. The findings from this analysis will then be used to assess the seabed ground conditions and the suitability of planned construction methods. It will also provide information that will inform the project’s health, safety, and environmental considerations when construction work begins.
Sandpiper, which will be visible from the coast for around 3 weeks (subject to weather), has four legs that will be lowered to the seabed, enabling it to lift the working platform above the water and create a steady platform for each borehole to be safely carried out from. It will be moved between borehole sites by a tug and supported by a rigid inflatable boat for emergency response and a crew boat for personnel transfer, twice a day.
The work follows geophysical surveying of the area that was undertaken last year.
Andy Lane, MD Northern Endurance Partnership, said “The East Coast Cluster will enable the decarbonisation of several existing and planned businesses across Teesside and the Humber, creating thousands of good quality jobs and helping to protect existing jobs in carbon intensive industries. The survey work underway off the coast of Teesside is a key milestone for the East Coast Cluster, and the information gathered will give us a clear picture of the ground conditions in the near shore area, enabling us to further refine our plans for the CO2 pipeline network that will safely transport and store millions of tonnes of CO2 from businesses on Teesside and the Humber – helping to establish the regions as globally-competitive climate-friendly hubs for industry and innovation”.
The ECC is enabled by the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP). The ECC aims to remove almost 50% of the UK’s industrial cluster CO2 emissions and create and support an average of 25,000 jobs each year to 2050.
