A TYNEDALE-BASED engineering company has designed and built a subsea plough to assist with installing offshore wind farms.

Riding Mill-based Osbit has designed and built the multi-function pre-lay and backfill subsea plough, which will now be known as PLP240, over a 20-week programme, following a contract award in January.

Osbit has worked with Global Marine Group and its first client for the new plough, Vattenfall, to deliver it, with its purpose being to reduce the cost of offshore wind installation.

This has been done by optimising the vehicle to minimise project risks and combine operations to reduce the time required to install subsea cables.

It will now be officially launched by Global Marine Group during an event at its Port of Blyth facility.

Osbit director Robbie Blakeman said: “We are very proud to have delivered this class-leading subsea plough to Global Marine Group. We are committed to developing globally innovative subsea trenching solutions using our proven modular technology and the delivery of this project reinforces the effectiveness of this approach.

“I firmly believe that no other company could have delivered an asset of this technical competence, to the same levels of quality, in the same time frame. These achievements are testament to the skill and focus of our amazing team and our commitment to promoting a pioneering health and safety culture across all of our operations.”