More than 23 years’ incident-free oil production from Mittelplate crude oil reservoir

Off the North Sea coast – on the southern boundary of the Wattenmeer Tidelands National Park in the state of Schleswig-Holstein – lies Mittelplate, Germany's largest and most productive oil field. Since October 1987, the deposit has been tapped in several oil-bearing sandstone layers by means of wells reaching depths between 2,000 and 3,000 meters.

Mittelplate is located seven kilometers off the coast  

Since the beginning of the production, RWE Dea AG as operator and Wintershall Holding GmbH as a partner, each with a 50% share, more than 25 million mt of crude oil had already been produced from the reservoir.

The scorecard of oil production is very good: the highly sophisticated drilling, production and transportation concept that has been continually upgraded to state-of-the-art technology has proved its worth at all times. Oil production in the sensitive Wattenmeer tidelands ecosystem has been incident-free throughout.

High investments in safety and environmental protection

The hallmarks of the Mittelplate project are technical innovations and a safety concept that is unique across the globe. In the past 23 years, capital spending has reached a total of around € 900 million. Substantial proportions of the sum invested are accounted for by the high standards of industrial safety and environmental protection. Many aspects of the project were developed specifically to meet the requirements of this ecologically sensitive production area. All activities are geared to the principle of minimal interference in ecological systems. This is why Mittelplate crude oil production has set the benchmark for environmentally compatible extraction of raw materials around the world.