Installation work for production platform N05-A in the North Sea will take place in summer 2024. In March 2025, the test phase of production from the N05-A platform began, with natural gas being produced. The natural gas is transported to the mainland via the new short pipeline and the existing NGT pipeline.
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.
The platform will be the first offshore gas treatment platform in the Dutch North Sea to run entirely on wind energy. A cable will be laid to the nearby German wind farm Riffgat for this purpose. This connection will result in near-zero emissions during well drilling and natural gas production. The electricity cable is expected to be laid in the spring of 2025.
In March 2025, the test phase of production from the N05-A platform began, with natural gas being produced. The natural gas is transported to the mainland via the new short pipeline and the existing NGT pipeline.
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.
Due to poor weather conditions, the work has not yet been completed. It is expected that the installation ship will be able to leave in mid-February.
In autumn, ONE-Dyas drilled the first well from which natural gas can be produced from field N05-A in the Dutch part of the North Sea. Before drilling, a mobile drilling rig was temporarily at the project site. Now that the first well has been drilled, the mobile drilling platform has left again. 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.
