Offshore staff

HAMBURG, Germany --RWE Dea's Mittelplatte field in the German offshore sector is set to produce 2.3 MMcm (14.5 MMbbl) of crude this year. This will bring the total exported to 20 MM metric tons (22.05 tons) since the field came onstream in 1987, said chief operational officer Thomas Rappuhn at a briefing in London.

The company hopes to boost production further next year by drilling multilateral wells into new targets, he added, and it is also in discussions with the authorities in Germany about extending exploration in the area.

Mittelplatte has been developed by an artificial drilling and production island, 7 km (4.5 mi) off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein in the Wattenmeer tidelands. Rappuhn said the company may seek to transfer the expertise built up with this facility to new projects in the Russian arctic region.

09/28/2007