Viking Johnson AquaGrips is helping to create an unusual facility that will provide additional gas storage for the UK energy industry. Scottish and Southern Energy is working on a five-year project to create nine caverns that will store up to 420 million cubic metres of gas in the salt deposits beneath Aldbrough on the East Yorkshire coast. The caverns are created by pumping seawater down boreholes to dissolve the salt. The 500mm OD AquaGrip is used to connect the two pipelines that draw the feed water from the North Sea and return it as concentrated brine.
Specialist marine contractor Van Oord towed 350m pipe strings 30km up the coast from Grimsby harbour before connecting them with back-to-back AquaGrip and sinking the completed pipeline into position. AquaGrip allows axial adjustment of the pipe by as much as 50mm, which is suitable for inserting pipes, valves and other fittings into an existing line without the need for precise cutting of the pipe.