Wintershall expands offshore production in the Netherlands / Natural gas reserves of 4.3 billion cubic meters are expected

Kassel/Rijswijk. Wintershall AG combines environmental protection and economic efficiency for the production of natural gas in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. After a complete reconstruction and a full modernization, the gas production platform L5-C is now ready to be used in the field of the same name. The platform, which has now been modernized, has already been standing in the North Sea block K10-V in the past years. “Recently the L5-C has been installed in its new location off the Dutch coast”, explains Wintershall Board Member, Dr. Ties Tiessen, who is responsible for Production. The other pre­parations for the beginning of the production will now get under way - in the following weeks, the exploration well will be converted into a production well, among other things. The platform should then go into service at the end of the year.

“We managed to conciliate ecology and economy for this project. Using this modernized platform is good for the environment – and good for us", Tiessen continues. The reconstruction and the redevelopment of the old platform helped the company save costs and time, which would not have been possible with a completely new construction. A big part of the material could indeed be reused. It took just seven months from the dismantling of the old platform K10-V to the installation of the new platform L5-C.

The L5-C platform is about 200 square meters, weighs around 1,500 tons and stands on a structure 47 meters high, the so called jacket, which is fixed to the seabed. The gas which is extracted from a depth of 4,500 meters is transported by pipeline to the Wintershall platform L8-P4, eight kilometers away. From there, it passes through a transportation pipeline, approximately 185 kilometers long, up to the Dutch mainland. Tiessen: “This process is completely automatic. Indeed, the platform L5-C is monitored by Wintershall’s remote supervision system.”

It is estimated that the total reserves of the fields are of at least 4.3 billion cubic meters gas. This corresponds approximately to the annual consumption of 2 million one-family houses. Wintershall, the wholly-owned subsidiary of BASF, manages the L5-C platform. The syndicate partners are Energie Beheer Nederland and Petro-Canada Netherlands.

Wintershall has been active in the Dutch sector of the North Sea since 1965 via its subsidiary Wintershall Noordzee B.V. Today, it is one of the largest producers of natural gas in the Netherlands and operates 25 offshore platforms. Over the last five years, Wintershall has invested around 350 million euros in this part of the North Sea. In 2005, the company took part in five completed appraisal wells and exploration wells as well as five production wells, which all discovered reservoirs. For this year alone, another twelve wells are planned for this part of the North Sea.

Wintershall Noordzee is based in Rijswijk near The Hague, also home to the corporate-wide competence center for offshore technology. The expansion of offshore expertise is generally gaining importance in the exploration and production of oil and gas, and the company applies this expertise to its activities in other regions of the world.

Wintershall AG, based in Kassel, Germany, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BASF AG in Ludwigshafen. The company has been active in the explo­ration and production of crude oil and natural gas for over 75 years. Wintershall focuses on selected core regions, where the company has built up a high level of regional and technological expertise. These are Europe, North Africa, South America, as well as Russia and the Caspian Sea region. Today, the company is Germany’s largest crude oil and natural gas producer.