2-847-845 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

A view of the launch site of the North Coates pipeline, showing a man in the foreground holding a two-way radio. The civil engineering work on the North Coates oil pipeline was carried out by Laing Pipelines along with French companies Entrepose and GTM, and the main contractor for the dredging work was Dredging and Construction Company along with Adriaan Volker of Rotterdam. The launch of the pipeline took place at 12.30 on 16th June 1970 and took 3hrs to complete. At this time, it was the largest sea pipeline to be placed off the British coast.