How They Built The World's Longest Underwater Pipeline | Megastructures | Spark

120 kilometers off the coast of norway is one of the north sea's largest underwater gas fields it's called foreman lag at 40 kilometers long and 10 kilometers wide and containing over 300 billion cubic meters of gas it's simply massive but it's locked in an icy tomb 3000 meters below the sea surface so deep and so remote that it's considered beyond the reach of man and machine that is until the engineers at norsk hedro the norwegian energy company decide it's just too tempting to ignore because there is enough gas to supply 20 of great britain's gas needs for 40 years the engineers know that in britain there's an expanding market for natural gas the coal they have traditionally been using to power their economy is no longer sustainable the brits are increasingly using foreign gas to power the turbines that create the electricity for their homes and factories and they need more of it so the engineers have come up with a plan it will take 10 years and cost 10 billion dollars first they'll drill the orman lang gas deposit transport the gas 120 kilometers to one of norway's largest processing plants at nihomna then send the processed gas to the uk down the langled pipeline a staggering 1 200 kilometers but to build the world's longest sub-sea pipeline this far and this deep requires overcoming some not so simple problems they're drilling nearly 2 000 meters through the seabed to tap the gas field and they'll do this with a rip built right on the sea floor the real fun begins with this the sterega slide the pipeline that brings the gas out of the field and delivers it to the plant has to scale this 300 meter underwater cliff face and the sea floor terrain is too rough to lay pipe on so that means trenching this monster the gas itself is a dangerous mixture of debris in frozen water that could blow a processing plant apart so they're adapting the system to handle the ormond land gas the planet is big enough to turn through 70 million cubic meters of the stuff each day to handle this mega job they've amassed some of the largest industrial ships in the world each designed to tackle a specific phase of the deep sea construction out here in the harsh north sea humans are confined to the topside world beneath the waves the brawny work is done by these underwater remote operated vehicles or rovs they're a fantastic new breed of machines and are so technologically advanced they're the stuff of science fiction it's a monumental challenge but with a pile of gas industry money behind them the engineers can dare to drink but are these guys going too far can they make this dream come true or is this going to be an engineer's nightmare first they searched the world for a gas well platform which would work in these torturous seas existing designs fall short the weather here is too stormy the water too deep then they suggest a revolutionary solution if they can't bring the gas up to a rig why not take the rig to the gas inside this warehouse in townsburg on the coast of norway the key piece of solving that engineering challenge is being built it's a daring move the engineers are combining the function of a surface platform with a c-bed drill guide it's called a template and it's an underwater gas platform that guides the drills through to the gas field and controls the well flow conventional gas platforms are sea surface structures manned by an army of workers in this case the platform is dropped onto the seabed clear of the wild north sea weather a drill ship then docks to it and from above guides the drills through to the gas field when the drilling is finished and the gas is flowing the drill ship departs leaving the template to control the wells four of these monsters will be mounted on the seabed through them a total of 24 wells can siphon over 70 million cubic meters a day from the gas field the template will then direct and control the gas flow to a shore based plant the entire unit operating by remote control from a manned center 120 kilometers away richard benion is a sub-sea engineer the main thing that you've got the difficulty that you've got is it's dark it's you know it's the devil of a job to put it in the first place you you've got to get this equipment onto the floor it's highly valued highly priced piece of equipment and then you've got to put it together with robots and you've got to make sure it doesn't leak and apart from that it's easy the stakes are huge engineers are building it to withstand pressures that would crush a normal submarine and it has to operate flawlessly for over 40 years in a harsh salt water environment once it leaves this warehouse and is lowered to the sea floor there's no going back it's going to be committed to the seabed forever this 1000 ton monster can't float on its own so the structure is loaded onto a sea going barge for transport to the drop site with all the planning and building behind them it's the weather that will determine if this mission is a success or failure it's a four day journey to the drop site and they've planned it to coincide with summer it's the season of the calmest seas which doesn't mean much here in the north atlantic they rendezvous with the world's largest crane ship the fielf a super crane that does heavy lifts at sea the two cranes mounted on board can lift over 14 000 metric tons that's about 80 747 jumbo jets the barge and the elf wait for a weather window before lift operations begin the contract to install the sub sea components is worth 21 million dollars with so much at stake they practice back on shore the crane and rov operators rehearse the drop this is a 3d virtual underwater world like the one they'll be working in with weather depth and weight going against them they practice now it's time for the real thing lines are connected the record-breaking sea drop begins [Music] this is their only chance if they miss and it settles on the seabed in the wrong place they'll have to build another one and set the project back by a year computer-controlled thrusters hold the crane ship over the drop site as it goes below the surface the underwater rovs are put into action to take over as the eyes on the operation they feed video back to the control room the engineers scan the rig for problems as the pressure increases from 1000 meters below the rov feeds video back to the crane operator who adjusts the orientation they have to keep the ball bearing as close as possible to the center of the bullseye he keeps the drop going even when it's meters away from the sea floor he's committed there's no stopping it now it's down and it's so heavy the legs on the base sink eight meters into the seabed but they won't know if they landed on the right spot until they check the coordinates the reading shows it's within 40 centimeters of their target close enough to be considered a perfect drop accomplished from 1 000 meters above on a rolling sea now that the template has been successfully placed the next step is to tap the gas field it takes two years to drill the first eight wells and they must have them ready to go before the pipeline can be connected a specialized drilling ship the west navigator is moved into position over the top of the gas field the ormond lang gas wells will be the largest deep water wells drilled in the world they drill the field with a powered drill head operated from the ship once assembled the pipe is lowered through the bottom of the ship and the one thousand meters to the template from here the drill head moves another two thousand meters through the seabed to the gas deposit and then it snakes its way through the gas pockets every step of the way is monitored and recorded in a virtual database which keeps expanding and is used by the engineers and surveyors to plot the next drilling spot back on land the team can enter the cave an amazing 3d undersea world by virtually passing over the seabeds and the gas find they can locate the most promising parts of the deposit jens grimsguard can plot the drill's movement from the cave with a joystick i could also fly in this world by just using it this tip here and using my movements of my hand to steer myself through this reservoir during the drilling data collected by the drill is sent back in real time to this database which is constantly being updated the computer generates the images which puts the team right in the gas deposit they pinpoint spots from 10 kilometers away with astonishing accuracy that would be compared to that your dentist would be in the 10th floor and you would be situated in the first floor and he's going to fill out one of your tooth back there we're getting extremely good results by doing this [Music] the template gets its power from the land through a 125 kilometer control cable called an umbilical this cable carries huge amounts of electricity enough to power 20 000 homes combined in this umbilical cable are tubes carrying hydraulic fluid fiber optics and electrical cables the welds on these tubes have to be as strong as the welds on the pipeline this is the power and control connection to the template without this the template will be just a thousand tons of useless metal at the bottom of the north atlantic but how do they deal with a cable that is a staggering 125 kilometers long the cable is built in a factory right on the dock as the cable is made it is fed onto a giant spool on the deck of the scandi neptune once the 120 kilometers of continuous cable is spooled up it will head out to the ormond land gas field to connect the control room to the four underwater templates but now they have to prepare the sea bed the bottom of the ocean under the north sea is a treacherous place and as you're about to discover the engineers building the world's longest underwater pipeline are facing a mountain of trouble eight thousand years ago two pieces of norway each about the size of the island of tobago slid into the sea causing a mega tsunami the landslide known in norwegian as the storega created a huge shelf in the ocean's topography the ormond lang gas field is on the edge of the storega locked inside the huge depression left behind by the slide this underwater disaster created a mountainous seabed with peaks that rise between 25 to 55 meters but the biggest concern for hedro is how to get the pipeline up the sterega slide face a whopping 300 meters that's nearly as tall as the empire state building underwater surveys reveal a rugged and fractured seabed but the unstable sediments have long ago disappeared the rock is more than stable enough and it would take a new ice age to dismantle it again but the study has made them more aware of the seabed and the pathway they will need to clear for the pipeline that will connect the underwater gas rig to the land first they must build a 3d model of the sea floor and find the easiest route what they have created is a virtual reality program with this model the engineers are able to plot the best pipeline route the fisheries in the north sea is a huge industry and hydro has to make sure the pipeline will not damage the reefs where the fish feed and the fishing boats work but the concern is not just about the environmental impact at sea but also on shore where one of the largest gas plants in norway is being built the land connection they have chosen is the small island of gossam and the tiny community of nihomna the destiny of this quiet community that will be forever altered now that it's been chosen as the landing area and processing plant for the ormond lang gas project what was once a remote corner of norway is being transformed into the bustling industrial center of the ormond land gas project here the raw gas from the ormond land gas field will be converted into usable fuel but to do that over 2 million cubic meters of rock is being carved from the island and over 30 000 tons of steel brought in almost overnight what was once a small village has become the busiest construction site in norway over 2 200 workers are on the job site each day to keep this mega gas plant rising from the rocky coastline there's a canteen to feed 1 000 people in a city each night the workers retire to the hotel which will provide 1 million guest nights over the course of the project but it will be removed when the processing plant is up and running three-dimensional models of the plant have been built and the engineers walk through it in virtual reality before and during construction every bolt high beam of steel is pre-visualized because of the volatile gas the specifications have to be executed perfectly but the plant has been built for efficiency the raw gas travels through the pipes and is converted into usable fuel in a mere 10 minutes that's a blink of an eye in this business then it will be ready for delivery to the uk the gas processing units are delivered to the island by ship cranes offload the components onto this massive flatbed transport this remote controlled monster has 48 independent axles and 96 wheels it expertly shuttles the thousands of components needed to build the plant here on land the workers have a close working relationship with the job site but offshore the workers hand in their wrenches for what else joysticks offshore the underwater work is done with remote operated vehicles or rovs from pipe laying to heavy lifting and that requires a lot of different rovs and people who can operate them in this warehouse is a simulation tank built just for offshore personnel to train on rovs it's driving school for robot jockeys here they simulate projects that will take place offshore it takes special tactile skills to maneuver a crane arm from 1 000 meters away multiple cameras allow the operators to see the action after the intense training with the rovs they're sent offshore where the stakes are high and it's no longer a game there are no second chances this is the pipelined end termination unit or plet a big machine for one simple task it connects the underwater template or gas well to the ormond lang pipeline but it's never that simple at 35 meters long and 30 meters wide this 350 ton device is being lowered the 1000 meters to the sea floor now that the plate is on the sea floor they assemble its components called modules these components make the crucial connection between the template and the pipeline that feeds gas to nihomnia all the connections at this depth are made with rovs but they can't do any of this work without first testing the systems thomas burnt is the sub c manager we are testing and testing and testing here and when we leave this hole we are 100 sure that this connection will be tight when we come offshore there won't be any leakage a leak is offshore at 850 meters with large volumes i guess is a disaster which we have to avoid they practice lowering the modules and testing the connections which will be handling 70 million cubic meters of gas each day they're training with an exact replica of the one that's on the sea floor it's a large investment but money well spent [Music] surrounding the connection module is a steel cage that protects it from stray objects that could drop off the drill ships and fishing trawlers when the gas exits the field the steel pipe expands a little bit of expansion is okay but the reason they're going to this much trouble is they expect the ormond lang pipeline to expand along its entire length by as much as one meter and that's enough to rip it apart so they've solved this by using a connector that slides back and forth on rails it absorbs the pipe's movement and keeps the gas flowing meanwhile the engineers are tackling the sterega slide and trying to get the umbilical cord or control cable run from the template to the control center 120 kilometers away but to do this they have to find a way through the rough and tumble terrain left in the wake of the slide the solution is to build an underwater excavator agile and strong enough to handle the job it's a daunting prospect that is until they built the spider the machine that inspired this one was originally built for the swiss forest industry and like its swiss cousin the spider moves along using powered tracks and articulated legs its mission is to excavate six trenches at water depths up to one thousand meters [Music] the biggest of them is a four meter wide by four meter deep monster trench big enough to drive a truck through one spider is outfitted with a powerful shovel it's strong enough to cast aside a three-ton boulder instead of a shovel the other spider has a suction nozzle powerful water jets break up the sea bottom and the nozzle sucks it up and fires the mud to the side all the while the spiders will contend with slopes up to 35 degrees there are sensors on all movable parts connected through an umbilical from a support vessel which floats above and monitors its progress the umbilical carries power and control cables and lets operators manipulate the six meter long spider to within 10 centimeters of accuracy 10 centimeters from a thousand meters above it's an unprecedented mobilization of such complicated and agile robots in all these two champion diggers managed to excavate five hundred cubic meters of soil creating a safe path for the gas pipeline the langeland which runs one thousand two hundred kilometers from norway to the uk is the largest sub-sea pipeline in the world [Music] this job requires one-third of the world's combined pipeline production capacity that's over one million tons of steel the value of the pipeline contracts is an unimaginable 700 million dollars langled uses pipes over one meter in diameter and each single piece of pipe has to be able to stand the enormous pressure on the sea floor for the next 40 years the pipes are each 12 meters long and weigh 10 tons another 10 tons of concrete and metal is added to give them enough weight to stay on the ocean floor a total of 100 000 steel pipes are needed to span norway to the uk that includes over one million tons of concrete and 25 000 tons of steel reinforcing robert payne is the man responsible for the integrity of the pipeline as it's being assembled uh each joint pipe weighs about 20 tons about 10 tons of steel 10 tons of concrete it's concrete and it's got inside of it a wire found mesh foundation to help it stick together this is so much volume inside of it whenever it gets on a seed bed and it gets light of air it wants to float so the concrete keeps it situated on seabed each of the 100 000 pipes is numbered as it comes out of the plant destined for a specific location in the line as the team is trenching on the steep sterregas line the rest of the route from the top of the slide to the shore is being prepared this is the island frontier it's a state-of-the-art trenching ship that combines two types of trenching methods into one powerful machine they survey the flat areas where they think they can bury the pipe by scraping a trench through the sandy bottom what they discover is not a pretty picture the sandy bottom is actually clay and the clay is hardened like concrete a new digger is required to cut a channel up to 7 meters wide and 5 meters deep the margin for error is only 50 centimeters on the width and a crucial 10 centimeters on the depth the clay cutter hybrid the only one in the world is lowered to the sea band the cutting tool uses its 24 water jets set at different angles to blast a trench through the clay suspended above is the four-time jet prop the propeller draws in large volumes of the surrounding seawater driving it at a high force towards the seabed clearing debris from the trench transponders mounted on the sea floor relay a 3d picture of the operations to the control ship and following along the entire operation like a formant on a job site is an rov that surveys the trench and confirms that it is dug to specifications the battle of the clay is finally won but when they start to lay the pipeline on the seabend the problems really begin the seabed under the north atlantic is a torturous and irregular landscape there's over 1 000 kilometers of terrain like this along the pipeline route from norway to england it's so rugged that only small sections of these heavyweight pipes will actually make contact with the seabed it's called free spanning and they don't want it it means the unsupported sections of pipe will sag stress and then break under their own weight this would be an environmental catastrophe they have to find some way of flattening out the pipeline route if you're not able to plane the seabed flat by moving the earth out of the way you may have to fill in some some holes with rock or other fill material they level the pipeline route by laying gravel down on the seafloor this ship loads gravel into its cargo holds and delivers it to the area that needs leveling it can carry over 9700 tons of gravel at a time once at the job site it uses a flexible fall pipe to place the gravel on the pipe pathway computers create a 3d model of the seabed and the path where the gravel needs to be placed this method allows the crew to place the gravel precisely where they need it at these sort of water depths you've got a problem because you haven't got that degree of control i mean whatever's doing the work down there is is a huge distance away from the mother ship and they've got to still present a flat smooth profile for the pipeline then to be laid upon the other thing that's to be worried about is that you have to do that profiling as close as possible to the time that the pipeline is going to be laid because mother nature tends to move things around again after you've left and so you come back in a couple of weeks later and you find there's been a storm or whatever and what you've taken so much care to flatten out has all of a sudden being moved around again so you would lose the work that you've done before the pipeline itself is a monstrous job once the pipe has been manufactured it is placed onto the supply ships for delivery to the pipe laying barge the lb 200 the barge is huge longer than two football fields it's an enormous floating steel welding factory which has to work with military precision there are only three of this type of ship in the world and hedra was using two of them here pipeline route has been surveyed before we ever came here we have a rov boat that stands by with us it monitors the pipe as it touches seabed and it's a predetermined route that we follow the barge has been used in the gulf of mexico in the mediterranean and off the coast of west africa but this is its biggest and most historic assignment once the pipeline process starts it cannot stop not for weather for accidents for anything the pipeline is built as a continuous tube that is dropped from the ship to the seabed if the ship halts for too long the strain on the pipe could snap the barge moves along at four kilometers a day and needs a constant supply of pipe sections which must be delivered in the order in which they are to be connected and laid down it's 100 000 pieces of pipe laid down end to end in a predetermined pattern they get moved by crane three or four times and go through about 15 or 20 welding stations and coating stations the pipe sections are delivered to the assembly floor deep inside the lb 200 here the welders are divided into teams their job is to create sections of the pipe called double joints these double joint sections are 24 meters long there's a lot at stake the pipes have to be put together so there's no chance of leakage and the assembly line has to keep up a steady pace the entire operation is monitored by engineers who have video cameras that put eyes on the process both inside and outside the pipe it's incredible technology but the fundamentals are very simple the fundamental thoughts that go behind it because it has to be so rugged and it has to work every time first time that the actual basic engineering is still fairly simple the next stage of the assembly line is to join this short section of pipe to the main pipeline it's been fed out of the back end of the ship and onto the sea floor it's a complex process that requires a lot of fine tuning this is no ordinary welding operation the process involves a special welding machine with eight heads per station [Music] passing through each of the welding stations in seven minutes the pipe is then checked by an ultrasound machine if a flaw is detected it has to be repaired immediately before moving to the next station the process cannot be stopped the connection has to be perfect because this is the stage that welds them together forever the assembly line is manned by industrial workers from over 30 countries ships work around the clock to keep the assembly moving 24 hours a day each day the teams have to assemble three to four kilometers of pipeline and drop it to the sea floor [Music] after all the welding stations have linked the pipe the final step of the operation is to seal the exposed metal it is covered in a protective heat shrunk plastic without this the steel pipe would corrode in the sea water now for the most critical step of the operation offloading the pipe to the sea floor the section where the pipes are joined is covered in foam to protect the welded joint during the drop the decks are cleared and the pipe is now ready to be committed to the sea floor a rubber tensioner grips the pipeline and holds it in place as it slides off the barge as the pipe enters the ocean it begins to sag and pressure is put on the entire pipeline which is free hanging beneath the ship without exactly the right tension the pipe could snap like a matchstick the pipe comes off the back of the barge in what's called a lazy s configuration so it comes off off the back of the barge and is in his trails down to the seabed some distance behind that s of unsupported pipe has to be kept from just buckling under its own weight so to keep it under control you've got to keep that under a huge tension to stop it from just collapsing under its own weight as the pipe is lowered the barge moves forward 24 meters not a meter more with this well-oiled operation the lb 200 is able to lay over 100 kilometers of pipeline a month as long as the pathway is clear and clearing that pathway is a complicated process in these particular sections of the pipeline route they need a two meter deep trench so they bring in the massive saipem plow this is the pl2 it's being used for trenching in shallower waters it drops onto the seabed over the one meter diameter pipe where its strong clamps pick it up then as the surface ship pulls it forward the plow cuts a trench five meters wide and two meters deep to fill the trench the bpl2 follows behind with backfill to cover the pipe with a protective coating of sand early in the design phase it was decided that they would bring the gas from the ormond lang field to the processing plant at nihomna and then build another 1 200 kilometer pipeline to britain at the 600 kilometer mark the line is broken and connected to the schleichner riser platform the sleightner platform works as a hub monitoring the 70 million cubic meters of gas flowing into the uk every day but tying the pipeline into the platform creates a whole new set of engineering headaches the underwater robots can line up the pipeline and the connecting pipes coming from the platform a massive underwater crane moves them into position but when they're matched up there is no technology for replacing human beings in making the final connection so the welders have to also become divers you ready to come down your hose good okay he's ready to come down thank you it's just that these welders are working on the sea floor like working on the moon the divers move around in pressurized modules to the work site do one lift on it see if we can rotate it into its proper orientation with you guys oh here new edges have to be cut and beveled at each pipe end before the welding hub is lowered onto the joint to connect the two sections the welding habitat is dropped to the ocean floor it has to be maneuvered in place perfectly over the one meter diameter pipe it clamps the pipe and then closes itself off the habitat is pumped full of air forcing the water out topside the dive supervisor uses cameras to keep a close eye on them and watch for any danger once it's safe the divers move from the module to the welding habitat within this habitat the diver welders make the final permanent connection it's a tricky and dangerous procedure the welders are confined to this small room 72 meters down and there's no escape if something goes wrong as each weld is finished the engineer checking by monitor on the ship above is able to inspect the work this last weld completes the connection from easington to the schleichner gas platform halfway from norway this is the first of many underwater welds that they'll need to make all the pipe connections to get the gas flowing 600 kilometers of pipe still have to be completed but a major goal has been achieved with this connection now that the pipe has been sealed and connected it has to pass inspection before they commit it to the next 40 years of service this is done with the pipeline internal gauges also known as the pig it makes the epic journey through the entire pipeline looking for weak spots and breaks it also scrubs out the crud and salt water once in easington it emerges and the data is analyzed the pipe passes inspection and the team moves on to the next phase which is getting the pipe onto land and into the gas plant at nihomna but landfall is blocked by a surprise discovery a mysterious shipwreck has been found 500 meters off the coast lying in their path and there is no way around it the wreck is directly in the pipeline path they have no choice but to halt work they look for alternate routes but the underwater terrain near the coast prevents the pipeline from going around or under it they have to go through it but before they can do that they decide to study the wreck and recover as many of the artifacts as they can the problem is that the shipwreck lies in over 200 meters of water well beyond the reach of archaeological divers merrick jacinski is a professor of marine archaeology his team is called in to research the wreck 500 meters from the harbor i don't think they were really happy when they found out that there was a shipwreck lying in the way it may have stopped the pipeline in its tracks but for archaeologists this is a fantastic opportunity to excavate and retrieve a piece of history but it's hard enough doing a proper archaeological excavation in shallow water at these depths it's considered nearly impossible so the team takes a page from the ormond lang engineers and utilizes a remote operated vehicle that can do the archaeological recovery for them these vehicles suddenly become a new generation of tools for the archaeologists but the thrusters on the remote operated vehicles stir up sediment and obscure the wreck site so they create a way to put an rov on the site and move it around without thrusters the rov docks to this steel frame which covers a section of the rack once attached to the frame gears and pulleys control its movement with precision and the archaeologists can get on with the job of unraveling the mystery of this shipwreck our theory is that the ship was on its way to northern russia to our countries and that this ship was a part of the trade network between west europe and northern russia the find is amazing they discover 18th century artifacts from asia the mediterranean region and all over europe once the sand is cleared fully intact wine bottles plates and coins are collected by the remote operated vehicles back in the lab the find is being investigated they may never know the name of the ship these artifacts are from but it's an extraordinary opportunity to look into maritime history an opportunity that may not have happened had the ormond lang pipeline not stumbled upon the wreck [Music] but as problems are being solved in norway they're a long way from being solved in england the coastal town of easington is chosen as a landfall point for the pipeline it's a convenient place to come ashore because it already has some gas industry infrastructure but there's a huge snag here which can potentially set the project back by decades each year on the coast battered for millennia by the north sea the land around easington gets smaller up to two meters of coastline disappear every 12 months over the 40-year life of the gas field erosion could claim 80 meters of earth to prevent exposure after erosion the pipeline is rooted through a 400 meter tunnel under the cliffs of the easington coast then brought up to the plant yeah i think you've got a you've got a system which is certainly as good as man can make it i mean if if some set of forces came into play that we had no anticipation of maybe we've got a different game on our hands but we've got a fair understanding of the forces that that pipeline will be going through during its working life the erosion of the english coast is just one more problem faced by an engineering team already exhausting itself with designing solutions back in nihomna they now have to deal with the raw gas that comes out of the ormond land field the problem is liquid slugs but what comes out of the gas field and through the pipeline is not pure gas it contains large chunks of debris called slugs the slugs move through the pipeline with such force that when they reach the treatment plant on land they have the potential to explode like liquid bombs and they will come into the plant with quite high velocity and a lot of mass in it so if those came into the plant directly it probably destroy the plant the solution is to build a slug catcher a labyrinth of pipes and filters a 10 000 ton monster it will meet the debris and stop it dead before it reaches the nihonna plant now they have to contend with the millions of cubic meters of condensate every major gas producer ends up with condensate a valuable stew of raw materials that can be turned into other types of energy the problem is storing and then moving it the solution here is to use huge underground caverns carved inside the norwegian mountains this mega sized natural holding tank can be filled with 230 000 cubic meters of condensate the engineers don't have to line the rock caverns with anything water pressure from the surrounding area forces the toxic sludge to stay confined within these walls every four days the caverns are pumped dry and freighters haul away more than 24 000 cubic meters of condensate for this by-product is also liquid gold which can be turned into other types of fuel for the international marketplace as the nihomna gas plant is completed the final leg of pipe is being laid out to the ormond lang gas field 120 kilometers offshore a special ship is required to work in these dangerous waters close to the norwegian coastline [Music] it can maneuver in tight spots using dynamic positioning moving meter by meter from shore to the ormond land gas field out here near the ormond lang gas field the solitaire reaches the limit of its pipeline ability and can go no further its job comes to an end at the top of the sterega slide this is the most demanding part of the entire ormond lang project the steep terrain left in the wake of the storega landslide requires a special pipeline ship this is the s-7000 it's a former crane ship it's been modified with a 130 meter tower on its stern deck it's taller than a 33-story building it's a floating factory and it's so big one can easily forget it's 100 kilometers offshore in the north sea twenty thousand pipes are welded together in groups of four they lift the now 48 meter long pipe up into the 130 meter tower and then lower it onto the pipeline [Music] here it is welded to the pipeline and then the pipe is carefully eased through a series of tensioners within the tower and lowered vertically straight off the ship the entire operation takes a month to complete making the final connection from the template to nihamna with the final link made the engineers have done what seemed impossible built a super pipeline through some of the roughest underwater terrain on the planet the question is will this super pipeline deliver what it has delivered is a gigantic leap in the technology of undersea engineering the technological advances made here might well end up being used under the impenetrable arctic gas fields by the time this pipeline gets into full production the huge army of divers welders engineers and construction people will have already moved on to other projects leaving behind them a super pipeline hidden deep under the north sea

Channel: Spark

Views: 899,137

Keywords: free documentary, documentaries, full documentary, hd documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), engineering, engineering documentary, constructions, construction documentary, megastructures, engineers at work, construction, technology, technology documentary, tech documentary, subsea pipeline, pipeline, pipeline documentary, longest pipeline in the world, longest pipeline, documentary pipeline, oil pipeline documentary

Id: m-LbbNP58nk

Length: 49min 16sec (2956 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 12 2021