At the beginning of this year, Brownline has completed 2 drills out of the North Sea coast at the village of Borssele, The Netherlands. This very special project is unlike any other project we have ever done!
What made this project stand out?
- Both the entry and exit point were below the water surface
- Both drills took place from a barge
- Direct Drill: the final product pipe was placed immediately during the drill
The reason for this remarkable job was the construction of an offshore substation platform off the coast at Borssele. In order to realize the power supply, a double grid connection had to be created between the platform and the onshore substation. Both drills were fully executed from an especially prepared barge. The entry point for the drills was situated at 8 meter (26ft) below the water surface, the exit point at 50 meter (164ft). This meant that once the drill was completed, the drill head had to be dismantled under water by divers and then brought up.
The accessibility of the entry and exit points made this a challenging drill, but also the applied technique was a huge contributing factor. These 450 meter (1476ft) long connections were drilled using the “Direct Drill” technique. Our Drillguide GST was mounted directly on to the product pipe, in order to install the pipe in one go. Obviously this drilling technique saves a lot of time, but it also involves risks; the drill can only be done once and therefore must be absolutely perfect. There is no room for corrections, so a very high degree of accuracy is required.
Brownline has been able to make a significant and very important contribution to this complex and challenging project. Our Drillguide GST makes it possible to apply Direct Drill under any circumstance!