Wintershall

COMPANY PROFILE

2014

Wintershall

+49 561 301-0 | www.wintershall.com

Changing operations Editorial: Helen Lake

REMOTE CONTROLLED OPERATIONS

Total World Energy recently spoke to German energy giant, Wintershall, about their state-of-the-art Centre for Remote Control Operations, a platform monitoring system that won them the 2008 BASF Innovation Award.

Wintershall, a subsidiary of BASF, the largest chemical company in the world, has been active in worldwide exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas for more than 80 years. With operations in four continents, employing 2500 people from 40 countries, the company’s

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core business is supplying energy to Europe and seeking and developing new, sustainable production sites around the world. It has a strong focus on technical expertise and is now operating one of the most cutting-edge platform control rooms in the industry.

Based in Den Helder, the Centre for Remote Controlled Operations (RCO) allows the company to monitor the production operations of its 18 offshore platforms in the Netherlands as well as one in the German sector and one in the British North Sea. The company is able to determine by radio transmission that the platforms are working well and without any problems. “The platforms are controlled in the same way as onsite control with the appropriate IT-based monitoring and control systems,” says Managing Director of Wintershall Noordzee in the Netherlands, Gilbert van den Brink. The RCO centre is manned by staff members with extensive offshore experience as well as analytical and communication skills

Wintershall enabling them to fully understand what is going on at the platforms based on the information available on the screens.

Wintershall is not the only company currently using RCO’s to monitor their platforms, but according to van den Brink, “At implementation in 2006/2007, Wintershall was the first operator in the Netherlands that implemented the RCO at this scale and functionality.” Having the RCO has a number of significant benefits, both for profitability and health and safety of the Wintershall staff.

Most of the savings brought about by the RCO are on materials and maintenance since unmanned

platforms require a simpler design without staff accommodation, kitchens, control rooms and social areas. Less preparation is required for the planning of employees’ stay on the platforms with a greatly simplified shift change over. It also reduces the number of flights to and from the platforms by a third, not only saving on logistics costs, but also greatly increasing employee safety.

All this makes the RCO essential for profitably producing from the smaller reservoirs. Like any welldesigned system, if the RCO goes offline for any reason, there is no need to panic. “In case the RCO goes offline, the platforms will be

operated locally. This is incorporated into the design and represents no problem for the platforms and production being monitored and controlled,” van den Brink assures.

RCO IN ACTION An example of one of the 20 platforms controlled from the RCO in Den Helder is the Wingate gas production platform in the British Southern North Sea. Wingate is 1200 m², 70 metres high and weighs approximately 850 tonnes.

It has an entirely self-sufficient power supply that uses natural gas recovered directly from the field and a mini turbine power plant that generates electricity for the

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Oiltanking Wintershall is banking on innovative technologies: the BASF subsidiary has now installed one of the most modern platform control rooms in the world, which will allow the company to monitor and control its gas production platforms in the Dutch sector of the North Sea centrally.

A radio surveillance system in Den Helder monitors the production operations of 18 offshore platforms which Wintershall operates in the southern section of the North Sea. Wintershall is operator of 25 offshore platforms in the Netherlands in total. The new system will secure the future commercial production of Dutch offshore reserves.

Overall, the investment costs for the newly installed center for Remote Controlled Operations (RCO) in the North of the country total 11.5 million euros, 4.3 million euros of which Wintershall, as the operating company, is covering.

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platform. It operates from a depth of 3700 metres and currently produces two million cubic metres of natural gas every day – enough to supply 500,000 homes.

The natural gas extracted here is transported by pipeline to the GDF SUEZ platform D15 – A which is 20 kilometres away in the Dutch North Sea. From there it flows over a further distance of 300 kilometres to the Dutch mainland near

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Uithuizen. Wingate was launched in late 2011, took 10 months to construct and saw investments of €50 million. This vast structure and complex operation is all controlled via the Wintershall RCO in Den Helder.

INVESTING IN THE FUTURE Wintershall is constantly in pursuit of growth and new technologies that can bring them to the

forefront of the oil and natural gas production industry. The development of the RCO is one of many projects that demonstrate the company’s innovative nature and their determination to succeed at making business more profitable and viable. Rijswik, near The Hague, is where you will find the company-wide Competence Centre for Offshore Technology.

Amongst other things, here they

Wintershall

are working on developing their shallow water expertise, a skillset of great significance in the exploration and production of oil and gas.

The technical expertise they are uncovering at this centre is also being applied to activities in other regions of the world.

The investment cost of the RCO is a total of €11.5 million, €4.3 million of which Wintershall, as the operating company, is covering.

That may sound like big money,

but the fact is, the RCO will secure the future commercial production of Dutch offshore reserves and with natural gas being a future orientated resource in global energy supplies, this is of utmost importance.

“The use of such technologies is examined on a case-bycase basis to see whether they are economically viable and practical and, if appropriate, they are deployed,” says van

den Brink. According to the Managing Director, the RCO was implemented using knowledge and experiences available to them inhouse. Wintershall has a focus on developing their technical expertise and doesn’t let difficult geological or climatic conditions put them off seeking new resources. In fact, their technical know-how and will to succeed leads them to discovering new deposits of natural resources time and time again PAGE 7

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