The Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) has launched the offshore construction campaign for the UK’s first carbon dioxide transportation and storage network at PD Ports’ Port of Hartlepool. The project is being delivered with Saipem. It will build the infrastructure needed to transport captured carbon emissions from industries across Teesside and the Humber for permanent storage beneath the North Sea. The campaign started with the arrival of linepipe joints at Saipem’s logistics facility in Hartlepool. The pipes will be used to build a 149-kilometre, 28-inch offshore pipeline and associated landfall infrastructure. More than 60% of the linepipe joints were manufactured in Hartlepool at the former Liberty Steel pipe mill, now operated by Corinth Pipeworks. The work supports around 150 skilled jobs and has created another 35 positions, including apprenticeships. NEP said the project is helping drive economic growth across the region. Together with Net Zero Teesside Power, it is expected to support around 3,000 jobs. More than £2 billion (US$2.7 billion) in contracts have already been awarded to over 260 UK-based companies. The project is now around one-third complete, with onshore construction already underway. PD Ports will handle around 12,000 concrete-coated linepipe joints weighing a combined 170,000 tonnes. Between 40 and 60 employees will work directly on the project across engineering, logistics, procurement and communications. The company has also invested more than £1 million (US$1.35 million) in new pipe-handling equipment at the Port of Hartlepool to support the project and future offshore cargo operations. Once operational, the network will be able to transport and store up to 23 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. That is equivalent to around 20% of the UK’s annual CO₂ emissions, making the project one of the country’s largest carbon capture and storage developments. The post UK’s first carbon capture network b