N-Sea to Connect German Offshore Wind Farm to Dutch Gas Platform

April 13, 2023, by Adnan Durakovic

Dutch upstream oil and gas company, ONE-Dyas, has awarded N-Sea with a contract to install a subsea power cable between the Riffgat offshore wind farm in the German North Sea and the new, to-be-built N05-A gas production platform.

The scope of N-Sea includes the complete scope comprising survey, design, supply, engineering, transport, installation, burial, termination, and testing of the subsea cable asset with a route length of approximately ten kilometres.

Final permits for the project were received from the Dutch Government in June 2022 followed by a final investment decision in September 2022.

The preparations have started straight away and N-Sea will mobilise various spreads in Summer 2023 and 2024 to execute the works in order for ONE-Dyas to deliver the first gas by August 2024.

The subsea cable will allow the N05-A platform to operate by electrical power from the Riffgat offshore wind farm and will not only be the largest investment in a natural gas development project on the Dutch continental shelf over the last 15 years but also the one with the lowest emissions footprint in the North Sea, N-Sea said.

”N-Sea appreciates the trust offered by ONE-Dyas to award such a strategic important project with ‘green credentials’ to N-Sea. We fully support the ongoing Energy Transition in the Netherlands and believe this project to be a prime example of reducing emissions whilst improving the security of supply of Natural Gas. N-Sea looks forward to a good collaboration with ONE-Dyas and its Dutch supply chain partners to deliver this project in a safe way,” said Jack Wattel, Director Subsea Cables N-Sea.

The N05-A platform will be installed some 20 kilometres north of the islands of Borkum, Rottumerplaat and Schiermonnikoog, and approximately one and a half kilometres from German waters, from where it will receive electricity generated by the first commercially operated wind farm in the German North Sea.

The N05-A project is part of the so-called GEMS area, an area approximately 20 to 80 kilometres north of the Ems estuary. ONE-Dyas, together with partners Hansa Hydrocarbons and EBN, aims to extract natural gas from the N05-A field as well as surrounding fields in the German and Dutch North Sea.

While the N05-A platform will not be the first in the North Sea to run on wind energy, it will be the first to do so entirely, since the Hywind Tampen floating wind farm – which is being built to power the Snorre and Gullfaks offshore oil & gas platforms in Norway – will cover 35 per cent of the annual power needs on the five platforms in the two fields.

The Riffgat offshore wind farm, built by EWE in 2013, is the first commercially operated wind farm in the German North Sea.

The 113.4 MW wind farm comprises 30 SWT-3.6-120 Siemens wind turbines installed some 15 kilometers to the north-west of the German island of Borkum.