Showcase pipeline fuels global gas flames

At first sight, there is nothing hi-tech about the vast, rusty vessel that appears to float in the air above the choppy, three-metre waves.

Seen from a helicopter, Acergy Piper is clearly too small to be an oil platform, but it does not look like a ship either.

If anything it resembles a set from the movies Waterworld and Mad Max.

Yet Acergy Piper is central to the heated debate about energy security, both in the UK and globally.

This week, the vessel will complete the roll-out of the world’s longest underwater gas pipeline, the Langeled, which from 1 October will start delivering up to a fifth of all the gas consumed in the UK.

BBC