Exploration and production at sea would be impossible without drilling platforms and drillships and depending on the depth of the water, oil and gas companies use different types of methods.  Drilling platforms are suitable for exploration in shallow waters up to 60 meters deep and stand on a flooded pontoon on the seabed. After completing the production operations the pontoons are emptied and the platform will be towed to a different location. In deeper waters of up to 300 meters, drilling platforms, known as jack-up rigs, are used.  These platforms have legs that can be lowered and will anchor themselves by burrowing several meters into the seabed.

When an offshore deposit is ready for production, either a drilling platform is converted into a production platform or a production platform is installed above the well. After extraction, the raw materials are taken from the well directly to the mainland by pipeline or are loaded into tankers at the oil production platform. Old tankers or purpose-built ships are often used as floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) units; they float from one production platform to the next.

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For decades the North Sea has been one of the world’s most important production regions. Since 1965, Wintershall has had its own natural gas production activities in the North Sea and operates 26 platforms in its southern sector. 25 of these platforms are located in Dutch territorial waters and 1 is located in German territorial waters. The average water depth around these production platforms is between 25 and 40 meters. Some of the exploration wells Wintershall operates in Norway have been drilled in water depths of as much as 400 meters.

Since 1987, Winterhall has been producing with the operator RWE Dea  on Germany's largest oil deposit,  the Mittelplate production island. Anchored to the floor of the tidal flats, the total encapsulation of the artificial island, in an impermeable steel and concrete shell guarantees reliable environmental protection and allows safe access to important resources within a sensitive environment. Measuring only 70 x 95 meters, the Mittelplate production island is relatively compact and is secured by a sheet pile wall, which is eleven meters high on the side facing the open sea. The design, developed after conducting detailed hydrographic, hydrodynamic, and meteorological studies, assures excellent stability in the rough tidal flats even in stormy seas or heavy icy conditions.

Drilling and production platforms are among the world’s most extreme places in the world to work. In most cases, the crew can only reach their workplace by helicopter and then have to stay on the platforms for weeks on end. Around the clock, the workers on board have to ensure that drilling and production run smoothly, even in bad weather. Technicians and engineers continuously check whether the installation and all systems above and below water are running smoothly. In emergencies, such as a fire or an explosion, the crew can safely get into lifeboats and wait until help arrives.

In 2007, safety on Wintershall’s gas production platforms in the North Sea was optimized when the company opened a monitoring center at Den Helder in the Netherlands. The center for remote controlled operations (RCO) is one of the most modern facilities of its kind and establishes by radio transmissions whether the production platforms are operating correctly. The control center is staffed by two employees around the clock and thus saves personnel on the platforms, avoids expensive flights to the platforms, and reduces maintenance and logistics costs. This allows, Wintershall to operate even smaller natural gas fields in the North Sea more efficiently.