Mittelplate
54.02598.731Koordinaten: 54 ° 1 ' 33 " N, 8 ° 43' 52" E
Middle Plate is the largest oil field in Germany. It is served by the same drilling and production island A Plate. Middle Plate is located in the North Sea off the coast Dithmarsch on the southern edge of the National Park Schleswig -Holstein Wadden Sea, on a sandbank in the "middle plate", after which it was named.
- 3.1 offshore
- 3.2 onshore
History
Suspected as early as the 1950s, geologists oil off the German coast. Although the first test drilling in the 1960s showed evidence of oil, but not in economically recoverable quantities. However, a further result of the test borings had been the realization that this oil field was not related to the then already developed oil field near Heath. The oil crises of 1973 and 1979 were aware of the domestic oil sources grow. In the years 1980 and 1981 drilling found in the medium- Plate in several Dogger sandstone layers at 2000 to 3000 meters deep oil.
In June, 1985, began the construction of drilling and production island Plate. In the fall of 1986 were drilled from the central plate of three test borings, which went into production in October 1987. This pilot promotion ran until 1991 and proved to be successful.
Capacity
Inventories of the deposit were now highly corrected to about 100 million tonnes, of which until October 2010 already 25 million tons were promoted. The annual production of the island means Plate is currently (2010) approximately 1.4 million tons of oil. Economically, under current conditions, yet another 25 million tons conveyed. According to the operational leader RWE Dea, the shareholder is equal parts with partners Wintershall, here store about 65 % of the remaining, economically recoverable German oil reserves. The economic value of several billion euros, according to the consortium.
Maximum production
The previous highest annual flow rates were achieved in 2003 ( 2.22 million tonnes) and 2005 ( 2.18 million tons ), since decreases the annual production. It is therefore to be assumed that peak oil was reached on Central Plate. In 2012, the annual production fell to 1.4 million tons of oil.
Types of support
The deposit is exploited both by " rig " from the sea ( "offshore" ) as well as from land ( " onshore ").
Offshore
A larger number of holes was drilled from the drilling and production island Plate. The so -sponsored wet oil was brought to the oil port in Brunsbuttel to 2005 with oil transportation barges (vessels of 46 meters long, 18 meters wide, 2 meters draft ). In the summer of 2005, a 10 km long pipeline with diameter of 25 cm from the platform through the mud after Friedrichskoog and was further set up Dieksand after ten years of preparation. The discharge capacity increases by up to 1.6 million tons per year. Since the tube crosses the highest protection of the National Park, it was controversial. However, the argument that an underground pipeline safer and more environmentally friendly than transport by ship was convinced. The pipeline now replaced the 2000 annual ship movements in the Wadden Sea. The accumulated in promoting oil gas is converted to electricity since on the production platform itself. 2008 two power cables were therefore postponed to deliver the surplus electricity to the mainland, in addition to the pipeline route.
Onshore
Since the year 2000 were obtained from a drilling and well site on land - in Dieksanderkoog (municipality Friedrichskoog ) - a total of seven highly deviated horizontal wells drilled with a length of 7727-9275 m to tap directly from the country of the eastern parts of the field. This directional drilling carry over a distance of about four kilometers through the Buesumer salt dome.
Feeding operation Holstein
The pipeline from the drilling and production island ends directly in conveying mode Holstein, approximately half the distance between the nucleus and the village of Friedrichskoog top where the wet oil arrives at a temperature of about 60 degrees Celsius. Also funded the drilling and well site oil is pumped to the feed operation. In production operations, a first purification of the oil by water, sand and other foreign materials are largely separated. The separated water is pumped to maintain the reservoir pressure in the eligible area. The delivery mode was specially expanded in recent years. From there, the oil is sent by pipeline to Brunsbuttel where a part is taken directly from the company Sasol. The rest is - pumped for petroleum refinery in Hemmingstedt - also by pipeline.
Project
2005, a new 70 m meter high drilling rig has been installed, so now holes in a radius of up to 6,000 meters around the island can be drilled on the island. The previous radius was up to 2,000 meters. This allows more of the island means Plate, unmatched regions of the deposit is open.