Installation work for production platform N05-A in the North Sea will take place in summer 2024. The first natural gas will be available to Dutch and German households by the end of 2024.
After one and a half years of construction, the platform was ready to leave the yard and go on transport. At this moment, the production platform already in place in the North Sea. Several Dutch organisations are collaborating for this major operation.
Below is the broad outline of the planning from transport to production. This planning depends, among other things, on weather conditions.
By the end of 2024, the first natural gas will be produced from platform N05-A.
Construction of the gas pipeline is under way. A short, new natural gas pipeline of about 15 kilometres will be laid from production platform N05-A to the existing natural gas pipeline network of Noordgastransport (NGT). The temporary works are partly visible from the shore. The platform will be the first offshore gas treatment platform in the Dutch North Sea to run entirely on wind energy. To this end, a cable will be laid to the nearby German wind farm Riffgat. This connection will ensure near-zero emissions while drilling wells and producing natural gas.
At the moment, a temporary mobile drilling rig is at the project site during. The drilling rig is bigger and higher than the final production platform and will only be there temporarily during well drilling. Subsequently, the production platform N05-A will be used to produce the natural gas.
The N05-A production platform is installed in the North Sea at the beginning of August. The installation did take place using a crane vessel that runs on liquefied natural gas instead of the commonly used diesel. This minimises emissions during installation.
