Our assets Production platforms, subsea completions and an onshore gas treatment facility
As one of the operators active in the southern part of the North Sea, Wintershall Noordzee currently operates 11 producing facilities on the Dutch and UK continental shelves. All our platforms are normally unmanned installations. All of them, including our 4 producing subsea completions, are monitored from our Central Control Room which is located in Den Helder.
Operated facilities
The majority of Wintershall Noordzee’s production facilities can be found in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. The oldest still producing facility is our L8-P production platform which was installed in 1994. The youngest producing facility, D12-B, can also be found on the Dutch continental shelf and was installed in 2019. Wintershall Noordzee only has one onshore asset which is the Q8-terminal in Velzen-Noord, near IJmuiden. This onshore gas processing facility has been in production since 1986. It accommodates the gas coming from the normally unmanned Q1-D and Q4-C offshore facilities, brings it up to specification and transports it into the national gas grid.
Wintershall Noordzee B.V. based in Rijswijk (The Netherlands) was first established in 1965 as Pennzoil Nederland Company, a pioneering independent operator. Wintershall Dea acquired the company in 1989, subsequently adding Clyde Petroleum to its portfolio in 2003 to create the basis of the company it is today.
As one of the producers of natural gas in the Dutch sector of the Southern North Sea, Wintershall Noordzee operates 11 producing offshore installations. In recent years, the company has further expanded its operated portfolio to the continental shelves of the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark.
Facts & Figures Average annual gas production of 6.5 BCM
Facts & Figures Average annual gas production of approx. 5 mio boe
11 producing facilities
4 subsea completions
1 onshore gas processing facility
1 onshore gas processing facility
F16-A production platform Located on the Dutch continental shelf
The F16-A production platform is located approximately 140 kilometers northwest of Den Helder on the Dutch continental shelf. After 15 years of steady production, the reservoir reached its economic end-of-life in Q3 2020 and the platform was subsequently closed-in. During its productive years, the platform also hosted the natural gas from the neighboring E18-A field. On board F16-A the gas was cooled, dried and compressed before it is was transported via the Noordgastransport gas transportation pipeline system to the onshore gas treatment station in Uithuizen in the north of the Netherlands. The 27-meter high platform comprises 7 levels and has a weight of 3600 metric tons. Its desalination unit and small natural gas driven power plant made the platform fully self-supporting. The F16-A production platform is currently in lighthouse mode and monitored, just like all our other offshore installations, 24/7 by our central control room in Den Helder.
K13-A production platform Located on the Dutch continental shelf
Originally installed in 1975, the normally unmanned K13-A production platform, located approximately 110 kilometers to the northwest of Den Helder, served as a gas production platform and central hub for many years. It currently does not produce from the original field or its surrounding satellite platforms but is nowadays used as a bypass platform to treat and transport gas from the J6-A production platform (Centrica) and the K5-A production platform (Total) via the WestGas Transport gas pipeline to Den Helder. Since the beginning of 2019, K13-A is a normally unmanned platform.
L8-P4 production platform Located on the Dutch continental shelf
The manned L8-P4 compression platform, located approximately 81 kilometers to the north of Den Helder, provides gas compression, dehydration services, water treatment, accommodation and operational support to the nearby satellite platforms L8-P, L5-B, L5-C, L6-B and the L8-A West subsea well. The produced gas is exported from L8-P4 via the Noordgastransport gas transportation pipeline system to the onshore gas treatment station in Uithuizen in the north of the Netherlands.
Remote Controlled Operations (RCO) CCR center located in Den Helder
The Central Control Room (CCR) in Den Helder has been operational since 2007 as an important milestone in further optimizing operational efficiency. The center uses an advanced radio controlled system to monitor the production operations of our offshore production platforms and satellites. The center ensures that production is carried out safely and as efficiently as possible and monitors 24/7 all our ongoing operations.
Q8-Terminal Onshore gas processing facility
The Q8-Terminal, in use since 1986, is Wintershall Noordzee's only onshore gas treatment facility where the produced gas from the offshore Q1-D and Q4-C fields is processed and compressed before it is directly fed into the Dutch gas distribution grid. The facility is located on the TATA Steel yard in IJmuiden and can handle up to 1.2 mio m3 of gas per day. The facility is manned during normal working hours. Outside of these hours, monitoring takes place from our Central Control Room in Den Helder.