Environmentally compatible oil production from Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island
The Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island is located in the southern part of Schleswig-Holstein’s Wattenmeer National Park, proclaimed a sanctuary in 1985. According to the revised national park legislation, the facility is located in a Category 2 Protection Zone, which only permits certain forms of use of the Wattenmeer tidal flats.
The facility, including its fortifications, covers an area of just under 0.02 km2. The entire Wattenmeer tidal flats in Schleswig-Holstein extend across an area of 4,415 km2.
Interactive aerial picture
Safety and environmental protection measures
Its special location calls for the utmost of care in the performance of all operational activities and presents an extreme challenge, both in terms of the human element and technology, to ensure that all ecological aspects are duly taken into account. Many of the facilities in the plant with an area measuring only 70 by 95 meters were specially developed at great cost in order to meet the conditions of this ecologically sensitive production region.
The fundamental principle being adhered to is to maintain reliable, impenetrable barriers to the Wattenmeer sea. The Drilling and Production Island is built in the shape of a compact, rain- and waterproof concrete-and-steel basin on top of the Mittelplate sandflats. By means of high sheet pile walls, it is protected from the outside against all elements of nature.
Nothing can escape uncontrolled to the outside; even rain and spray water is collected and processed. Even seepage is not possible. A comprehensive, closed waste disposal system guarantees protection of the Wattenmeer tidelands and of the North Sea. Sophisticated monitoring and control systems provide multiple levels of safeguards for all drilling and production operations.
This has resulted in a facility capable of operating in an environmentally compatible manner thanks to its exemplary safety and environmental protection measures in place.
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Aerial photograph of the Drilling and Production Island |
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