Residents of Redcar and Marske have reported an “infernal vibrating noise” over the past few days, emanating from the North Sea, and keeping them awake at night. So what’s happening?
Dead Man Anchor
The noise and vibration is coming from just offshore. A ship called MH Freedom is moored here. This is a “Multi Purpose Offshore Vessel” operated by United Offshore Support GmbH. MH Freedom is building a “Dead Man Anchor”, a huge block of concrete which will temporarily secure a pipeline being built by the Northern Endurance Partnership.
What is the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP)?
The NEP is the organisation tasked with building a carbon capture project. The project involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial plants in Teesside and Humberside. The CO2 will be sent out to the Endurance saline aquifer, which is a layer of porous rock capable of storing gas. The aquifer will become the Endurance Offshore Storage System (EOSS), and will be supplied via two separate pipelines from Teesside and Humberside.
Here’s a map of the under-construction pipeline network:
How will all of this work?
Various industrial sites in Teesside will send their CO2, via an onshore pipeline network, to a Power Capture and Compression plant, which is under construction at the Net Zero Teesside (NZT) site at Teesworks. After the CO2 has been compressed, it will be sent to the EOSS via an offshore pipeline. This offshore pipeline is what is being assembled off the coast of Marske right now. The pipeline infrastructure will consist of a 28” diameter steel pipe, which will transport the CO2, alongside a Power/Communications cable, which will monitor activity. All of the offshore activity will be coordinated by Saipem Logistics, working with PD Ports in Hartlepool.
Removal of the Dead Man Anchor
The anchor will be removed once the pipeline has been secured on the sea bed. The pipes themselves, although made of steel, are coated in heavy concrete. This creates negative buoyancy, which should ensure that the pipeline remains in place. In some places, engineered rock placement will be placed on top of the pipe for extra protection.
My, that’s a big one
Overnight, on 17/18 August, the giant pipe-laying ship Castorone appeared on the scene. The Castorone is 335 metres long and 40 metres wide. It will weld individual sections of pipe into a continuous pipeline, then lower the pipeline on to the sea-bed from the bow of the ship. This is a relatively straightforward operation in shallow water, but the sea depth will gradually increase to 1,000 metres by the time Casterone reaches the EOSS, 145km away. Here’s a photo of the ship taken from the Marske shoreline by local resident Sharon Bell:
Please hurry up
The appearance of Castorone may indicate that MH Freedom’s “Dead Man Anchor” work has been completed. Castorone is capable of laying 5 to 6 kilometres of pipeline a day, and should make short work of its task, given favourable weather conditions. Marske residents will be hoping that this will be the case. Castorone is equipped with multiple thrusters and dynamic-positioning equipment. There are eight 8.4-MW generators on board to power all of the moving parts. So, plenty of noise and vibration to disturb everyone’s sleep until it disappears over the horizon.
But go carefully
There’s a lot of kit on the sea floor in this vicinity. The Central Area Transmission System (CATS) pipeline comes ashore nearby. CATS transports natural gas from the North Sea to a terminal at Coatham, a few km west of here. Then there’s a high voltage cable, which will transfer electricity from the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm to the Lackenby substation, just inland from Marske. This cable is in place, although the wind farm isn’t operational yet. The map below, courtesy of the East Coast Cluster, gives an indication of what lurks beneath the waves.
Headwinds
In May 2026, I wrote about some of the headwinds facing the NEP carbon project. The first setback happened in April., when Drax plc decided not to go-ahead with carbon capture at its Yorkshire power station. Drax would have transported 13.3 million tonnes per annum of CO2 to the NEP, almost 50% of the planned volume. The following month BP, the lead NEP contractor, announced its intention to sell 50% of its stake in the project. You can read more about this here.
Long, hot summer
At this point in our story, a reminder that carbon capture is an elaborate greenwashing scam by the fossil fuel lobby. The amount of CO2 that will be captured by the NEP, or any of these schemes, will always be infinitesimally small compared to the amount that will continue to be vented into the atmosphere.
The natural way
Instead of high-tech carbon capture solutions, we could look to simpler ways of doing it. There’s a lot to be said for encouraging kelp forests in our seas and oceans. On land, the Forestry Commission extols the virtues of Woodland Creation to sequester carbon. But this is becoming an uphill climb; US President Donald Trump has just authorised the clearance of 45 million acres of old-growth forest.
Thanks to James Waterson for providing additional research for this article.
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