Pipeline transportation concept for accelerated development and exploitation of oil reserves

A milestone in the continued development of Germany’s largest oil field, Mittelplate, was reached with the construction of the pipeline linking Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island, seven kilometers off the coast in the Wattenmeer tidelands, to the treatment facilities at the Dieksand Land Station in Friedrichskoog. The oil transportation system commissioned at the end of October 2005 facilitates continual oil production.

The course of the pipeline links to the land-based processing facilities  

The pipeline link increased the production capacity of Mittelplate Island from a previous maximum of 900,000 mt to a future limit of 1.6 million mt of crude oil per annum.

The development and implementation of the new transportation concept called for funding in the order of € 100 million. The overall ecological benefits of this project are considerable. Around 2,000 movements by the double-hulled barges that had been used up to this point to transport the crude oil from Mittelplate Island are eliminated.