Gallery: VBMS completes cable drilling for Dudgeon landfall

UK: Cable installation specialist VBMS (formerly VSMC) has finished installing the cable pipes for the landfall of Statoil and Statkraft's 402MW Dudgeon offshore project.

by David Weston 23 October 2015

  • The 1,170-metre landfall pipes are taken to Dudgeon, ready for installation

    The 1,170-metre landfall pipes are taken to Dudgeon, ready for installation

  • One of the pipes being pulled by tug boats from the beach

    One of the pipes being pulled by tug boats from the beach

  • Two tug boats move the pipe into position

    Two tug boats move the pipe into position

  • VBMS guides the pipe into the borehole, leading back to the coast

    VBMS guides the pipe into the borehole, leading back to the coast

  • The pipe will carry the project's export cable

    The pipe will carry the project's export cable

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The cable installer drilled two 1,170-metre long horizontal directional tunnels near Weybourne in north Norfolk on England's east coast, where the Dudgeon offshore project cables reach land.

Two pipes have also been installed to hold the project's export cables. 

To avoid winter weather conditions, the work was brought forward by three months. The two 42km export cables will be installed from March next year.

Planned for a North Sea site 32km off Norfolk, the 402MW Dudgeon project is being jointly developed by Statoil, Statkraft and Masdar.

In April 2014, it was awarded a final investment decision-enabling  by the UK government. The contract guarantees a fixed price for the electricity produced over 15 years.

In May, the developers announced the project had reached a  that is part of the subsidy requirement,  by spending 10% of expected project costs, which included the .