Mittelplate

Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island is located in the southern part of the Wattenmeer National Park in the North German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The Wattenmeer tidal flatlands have been a National Park since 1985. Germany’s latest national park legislation puts the Mittelplate facilities in a Category 2 Protection Zone where commercial exploitation of the tidelands is to some extent permitted. This includes oil production in the Mittelplate area. The Mittelplate facilities take up just under 0.02 km² of the Wattenmeer National Park, which covers a total area of 4,415 m².

The most important oil reserves off the German North Sea coast have been developed from this artificial island since fall 1987. Reserves far in excess of 100 million tons of crude oil were originally located in several oil-bearing strata at depths between 2,000 and 3,000 meters. Since the commencement of production, over 24 million tons of oil have been extracted, with a further 20 - 25 million still considered to be recoverable.

This makes Mittelplate Germany’s biggest oil field. Since production began in 1987, the Mittelplate consortium have consistently developed their technically sophisticated concept for safe and environmentally compatible oil production in this sensitive area and come up with many new solutions to optimize exploration and production.

State-of-the-art engineering to develop Mittelplate reserves

Besides the successful offshore operations, new production perspectives have been opened up by high-tech wells that have made drilling possible from onshore locations since mid-2000. With so-called extended reach (ERD) wells it has proved possible to commercially exploit the eastern section of the oil reserves. The crude produced via these deviated wells is processed at Dieksand Land Station and then piped to Brunsbüttel from where it is transported to customers.
The larger western section of the oil field continues to be developed from the artificial island in the Wattenmeer National Park. The Consortium’s onshore production rate currently stands at around 665,000 mt a year. With the total annual production volume from onshore and offshore facilities amounting to some 1.6 million mt, Mittelplate is Germany’s most productive oil field.

RWE Dea as operator

In its function as field operator, RWE Dea is responsible for the only offshore production project off Germany’s coastline – a project that has gained an outstanding reputation in the oil industry worldwide. For example, through the exemplary way in which pioneering technology has made environmentally benign oil production possible. Mittelplate is not only Germany’s most productive oil field, it is also the location where RWE Dea develops and enhances the know-how it can employ and pass on for exploration and production projects worldwide.

Producing oil and protecting the environment

Sophisticated, state-of-the-art technology, multiple safeguards at every stage of the production process and the employment of experienced, responsible specialists: this is the ideal safety package that ensures reliable environmental protection in producing crude from Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island. Specially developed for such an environmentally sensitive region, these facilities have proved over many years that oil production and environmental protection can go hand in hand.