German oil and gas firm Wintershall has said it has now launched gas production from the Wingate field – its first gas production as operator in the UK North Sea.
The remotely controlled Wingate platform in the southern North Sea will initially produce 1.5 million cubic meters of natural gas, said Wintershall.
A second production well is expected to increase the production rate to three million cubic meters of natural gas as soon as next year, the firm added – enough to supply around 400,000 households.
“Our most recent investments of more than 50 million euros in the Wingate project once again demonstrate that we still see considerable potential in the North Sea,” said Martin Bachmann, director responsible for exploration and production.
“The production of gas from the Wingate platform is controlled via the Wintershall remote control room in Den Helder in the Netherlands.”
With the launch of Wingate, Wintershall now controls 20 platforms overall from its Center for Remote Controlled Operations in Den Helder, 18 of them on the Dutch Continental Shelf, one platform in the German sector of the North Sea, and now the Wingate platform.
Natural gas from Wingate is extracted from a depth of 2.2miles will be piped to GDF SUEZ’s D15-A platform 12.4 miles away in the Dutch North Sea.
From this facility it will flow over a distance of about 186 miles to the Dutch mainland near Uithuizen.
The Wingate platform was built in the dockyards in Dordrecht and in Ridderkerk in the Netherlands over 10 months.
It was built to be fully self-sufficient with a mini-power turbine station generating electricity from the gas directly extracted from the field. It is about 13,000 square feet in size; the platform deck weighs about 950 tons.
Wintershall has been active in the North Sea for almost 50 years.
Wintershall Noordzee is the operator of Wingate with 49.5% stake. The other partners are Gazprom Germania (20%), Exxon Mobil (15.5%) and Gas-Union (15%).
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