Project History since 2000

2000

An important new phase in the development of Mittelplate, Germany's biggest oil deposit, begins in June 2000. Onshore production begins in Friedrichskoog after a 15-month construction phase and on completion of a brief production test. Oil production from Mittelplate oil field is thus optimized, and the overall recovery time is shortened. Annual production rate rises to around 1.8 million mt of crude. By the end of the year, all operations at the Land Station and the oil pipeline run smoothly and incident-free. At the drilling site, the Dieksand 5 well is sunk.

End of year: Operations at the Drilling and Production Island again show a positive track record. Over 800,000 mt of crude were produced by the offshore facility without incident. Six months of onshore operations produce 495,000 mt. Total production from the deposit since the start of operations is nearly 6.2 million mt. The latest estimates of reserves indicate at least 35 million of exploitable oil, significantly more than the 30 million mt previously calculated. Geologists will not rule out a further increase in the recoverable potential.

2001

April 2001: 3-D seismic surveys are conducted to obtain more accurate data on geological formations in the reservoir and to determine the possibilities of accessing more distant sections via onshore extended-reach wells.

Drilling teams successfully complete onshore well Dieksand 5. On reaching its target, with a drilling length of 8,995 meters, it is Germany’s longest ever extended-reach well, and one of the world’s top ten. Another extended reach well in the second half of the year aims to safeguard onshore operations.

The drilling program begun from Mittelplate Island in the year 2000 continues. Considerable sums are invested that year in renewing and upgrading drilling equipment. In addition, planning is under way to modernize operating facilities and living quarters. Work remains confined to the Island.

2002

The evaluation of seismic surveys conducted the previous year and the results obtained from additional exploration wells have shown that the recoverable reserves from the Mittelplate oil field exceed earlier estimates by a significant margin. Using the existing production concept, the exploitation of this greater reserve potential would take several decades. This course of action would also be in conformity with the relevant provisions of the Mining Act.

Following the presentation of the new evaluations of the oil field, a new set of solutions is developed with the objective of speeding up oil production and, hence, reducing the overall time required to exploit the field. The concept calls for a pipeline linking Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island to the processing plant at the Dieksand Land Station at Friedrichskoog. Construction of such a pipeline would achieve a considerable boost in transport capacities from the offshore operations compared with the existing method of shipping the crude to the mainland by barge. The prerequisites for boosting offshore production to an annual volume of 1.2 to 1.6 million mt of crude would be met. The onshore production from the horizontal drill holes would remain unaffected by the pipeline.

Any short-term impacts on the environment during the planned construction of two pipelines of approx. 7.5 kilometers through the Wattenmeer tidelands and the laying of approx. 2.8 kilometers of pipeline using the open-trench method on the mainland to reach the Land Station will be offset by the overall ecological benefit of the project.

The pipeline would eliminate the need for about 1,000 shipments of crude using the specially built tug-and-barge units. The ecological balance improves due to higher production, which will shorten the total production period by about 10 years and will result in earlier deinstallation in the Wattenmeer tidelands. This is also in line with the demands from environmental associations.

The required documentation is prepared for submission as part of the prescribed assessment and approval procedures.The entire annual production volume from offshore and onshore development of the oil field exceeds 2 million mt of crude for the first time in 2002.

2003

The onshore drilling campaign is concluded with a current total of seven high-tech production wells. The last extended-reach production well commissioned in February 2003 has a final drilling length of 8,672 meters, producing a flow rate of about 400 mt per day.

Operations on the Dieksand Land Station are proceeding smoothly. The projected annual onshore production is 1.1–1.2 million mt of crude.

The Mittelplate production well A16 is also completed and commissioned. Its production with a flow rate of approx. 300 t per day has exceeded expectations.

In the company of guests from the political and business community, administration and the authorities, as well as representatives from the media, the production of the 10-millionth ton of crude from the Mittelplate oil field is celebrated at Friedrichskoog at the end of March. The drilling, production and transportation concept, developed and continually adapted to incorporate numerous innovations, has proven itself time and again. The project, which first and foremost needed to address the environmental aspects in the ecologically sensitive production area, has meanwhile become recognized as a model for similar projects throughout the world.

Following smooth transportation to the site and successful installation, the new living quarters and the associated operating facilities were commissioned in October and are now in use. This means that 96 people – instead of the previous 69 – can now be accommodated on the artificial Mittelplate island. The new living quarters are of a much better standard. The capital investment for the new facilities amounts to € 20 million.

In mid-October 2003, the State Mining Authority of Clausthal-Zellerfeld approved plans for the pipeline link between Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island and the Dieksand Land Station in Friedrichskoog. Upon expiry of the time limits for lodging objections, the approval became effective in December. This integrated offshore and onshore development has proven reliable and is already contributing to the more rapid exploitation of the oil field. The annual production volume increases to 2.22 million mt of crude in 2003, with the total production volume exceeding 12 million mt.

2004

In January it is decided that the planned construction work in connection with the pipeline link from Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island to the Dieksand Land Station at Friedrichskoog will not go ahead this year. The reasons given were that soil testing along the planned pipeline route is still under way, and that the assessment of the detailed engineering analysis is yet to be completed.

At the end of March, the contract for the construction of a new drilling rig for Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island is awarded. The replacement of the drilling rig became necessary to meet the increasing technical requirements in further developing the oil field as planned. The new drilling rig is scheduled for installation on the island in the second half of 2005, with commissioning to follow at the end of 2005. The rig will be capable of drilling wells of up to 8,000 meters in length, in a radius of approx. 6 kilometers around Mittelplate Island. The contract is worth just under € 38 million.

Meanwhile more than 20 of a possible 44 possible wells have been sunk on Mittelplate Island. The total volume of production has reached more than 13 million mt of crude. Following a period of intense detail engineering work, an optimized concept for the planned pipeline link is submitted.The planned technical changes are necessary to reliably meet the time frame laid down in the planning approval of October 2003.

Following the conclusion of the planning approval process and the issuing of the license by the State Mining Authority, preparatory work on the pipeline link commences in October 2004. More than 700 individual pipe segments 18 meters in length will be joined to form ten piping runs of up to 1,400 meters by the end of February 2005.

At the same time as the land-based preparations are carried out at Friedrichskoog, the company Hafengesellschaft Brunsbüttel starts work at its own port facilities on the Elbe river on fitting out the twelve offshore work pontoons. These pontoons, up to 100 meters in length and more than 20 meters wide, will be moored in pairs at each of the six construction pits along the pipeline route and used in construction and drilling operations.

2005

In an effort to optimize the extraction of oil from the deposit, RWE Dea as operator and its partner Wintershall will be investing a total of around € 150 million by the end of the year 2005 to implement the new concepts devised for a more efficient development and production and increased transport capacity. The centerpiece of the project is the pipeline link, which requires a capital investment of around 100 million euros alone.In addition, a large number of operational facilities in the offshore and onshore segments will be expanded, optimized or replaced.

On Mittelplate Island, the existing drilling rig will be replaced with a new, more powerful high-tech rig.

May 19, 2005 marks an important milestone in the construction of the pipeline link: All twelve horizontal boreholes through the seabed, undertaken in sections and covering a total of 7.5 km, to link Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island to the mainland at Friedrichskoog-Spitze have been completed successfully.

Once the welding to link up the six sections of pipeline and the subsequent backfilling operations at the pits are completed, removal of the work pontoons and materials takes place in June. De-installation of the offshore pipeline transportation system and of the transport facilities at Friedrichskoog-Spitze are also concluded. By June, some 15 million mt of crude have been produced from Mittelplate, Germany’s biggest oil deposit. The offshore production volume from 18 out of a possible 44 wells is 9.5 million mt of crude. The total onshore production volume to date amounts to approx. 5.5 million mt of crude.

In July 2005, the ocean-side component of the construction work on the pipelines linking Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island to the crude oil processing plant at the Dieksand Land Station is completed. This brings the short-term intervention in the Wattenmeer tidelands to an end. The open-trench pipelaying operation on the mainland to complete the link to the Dieksand Land Station is proceeding on schedule.

August/September 2005:  The work to upgrade and modify the facilities on Mittelplate Island as part of the continued optimization of development and production is in full swing. Transportation on site, assembly and installation of the processing equipment needed to boost offshore production to an annual volume of 1.2 to 1.6 million mt of crude is proceeding without incident and on schedule. The same applies to the work involved in installing and connecting the equipment and systems required for the commissioning of the new pipeline link.

Assembly and installation of the new drilling rig are also on schedule. The prefabricated components of the supporting structure weighing many tons were transported to the island on board pontoons, where they are unloaded with the newly installed portal crane and moved into position. The modular construction permits assembly using a minimal footprint. Installation of the tower’s 70-meter high superstructure, including the installation of drill pipe handling and lifting equipment, is completed.

The necessary modifications and upgrades to the processing plant at the Dieksand Land Station are also proceeding on schedule. The capacity of the treatment plant is increased from a current 1.2 million mt to 2.5 million mt of crude. Additional process fields, a machinery hall, a gas dehydration plant, a flat-bottom tank, a range of processing vessels and separators are being built at the 55,000 m² site, and operations buildings are being expanded and upgraded.

October 28, 2005: At an event attended by the Minister-President of the State of Schleswig–Holstein, Peter Harry Carstensen, and guests including politicians and representatives from business, administration and government departments, RWE Dea AG as operator and partner Wintershall AG officially commissioned the new crude oil transport system.

The implementation of the technically demanding pipeline construction concept was completed on schedule and is in full compliance with the strict environmental requirements imposed on the project in the Schleswig-Holstein Wattenmeer Tidelands National Park. The ecological benefits of the project are considerable. Around 2000 journeys by double-hulled barges transporting the crude will be eliminated. The environmental outcome is further improved thanks to the increased production volume, which will result in a reduction of the total production period. By the end of 2005, more than 16 million mt of crude have been produced from Germany's largest oil field without incident.

2006

The pipeline link from Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island is performing to expectations. Each day, 2,700 mt of crude from Germany’s most productive oil field are transported to the mainland through the new stainless-steel pipeline, regardless of weather conditions. The short-term intervention required during the construction of the pipeline did not lead to any long-term impact on the ecology of the tidelands, as has been documented by the results of the monitoring programs which are now available. External experts had been monitoring the project throughout the construction phase in order to observe its impact on seals and birds as well as on the fauna living in the seabed. The results show that the stipulated environmental objectives have been achieved.

On completion of a short test phase, the newly installed high-tech drilling rig on Mittelplate Island has commenced its extensive drilling program. The T-150 rig, which cost approx. 50 million euros, features special equipment to allow it to operate in the ecologically sensitive Wattenmeer tidelands without harming the environment. With its large drilling radius of 6,000 meters in length around the Mittelplate Island and total drilling lengths of approx. 8,000 meters, the drilling rig is capable of tapping the Mittelplate oilfield to an optimum degree.

Since May, the rig has been drilling the A20 well. At the end of June, a new logistics center for the transshipment of cuttings from the drilling operations is officially opened in Cuxhaven. As part of the new waste disposal concept, the new facility allows these cuttings to be stored, transshipped and also subjected to thermal processing in future, in compliance with a high level of environmental and safety standards.

Drilling and production operations run incident-free for the entire year. The total volume of offshore and onshore production reached approx. 2.15 million mt of crude in 2006.

2007

The extensive investment program for the offshore and onshore operations launched in 2005 has been completed on schedule and according to plan. The drilling, production and transportation concept has been upgraded to match the state of the art, and the sophisticated innovations put in place are setting new benchmarks around the world. Some 670 million euros have been invested to date. Substantial proportions of the sum invested are accounted for by the high standards of industrial safety and environmental protection. Since October 1987, RWE Dea AG as operator and Wintershall Holding AG as a partner, have been developing Mittelplate, Germany’s most significant oil deposit off the western coast of Schleswig-Holstein – safely and in an environmentally compatible manner.

Coinciding with the 20th anniversary, the 20-millionth ton of crude was produced from the deposit in October 2007. The initial production rates of around 200,000 mt of crude annually have increased more than tenfold. Oil production in the sensitive Wattenmeer tidelands ecosystem has been incident-free throughout. The annual production volume meanwhile amounts to more than two million mt of crude. This is a significant contribution to domestic oil production, and hence to the stability of the energy supply in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The dynamic development of geophysical processes and drilling technology in recent years has opened up new horizons for efficient drilling and production methods, making it possible for oil production to be continually optimized. In addition to the 20 million mt of crude that have already been produced, based on the data currently available there still are some 30 to 35 millions mt in recoverable reserves. As the remaining oil deposits in Germany are now largely depleted, the Mittelplate field has not only become Germany's most productive oil field, but with just under 65 per cent of national crude oil reserves, it is one of the few proven deposits with a viable future. More detailed evaluations of seismic tests meanwhile indicate that additional oil resources are likely to exist. The question as to whether and how much oil remains below the Wattenmeer tidelands is to be resolved by drilling exploratory wells.