How Offshore Pipelines Are Installed

On the surface, the ship is barely moving. But underneath it, steel pipe is being welded together joint by joint and lowered continuously to the seabed below. The ship never stops. The welding never stops. And by the time this vessel leaves, a pipeline hundreds of kilometres long will be lying on the ocean floor. This is pipe-lay — one of the most continuous, demanding, and least understood operations in offshore construction. In this video we explain how offshore pipelines are installed on the seabed, how S-lay and J-lay vessels work, how pipe is welded and lowered in open ocean conditions, and how some of the world's longest undersea pipelines were built across hundreds of kilometres of ocean floor. Inside Offshore Energy — explaining the hidden world of offshore engineering, subsea technology, and offshore infrastructure.