Wietze Drilling Department

From its base on the historical site of the former oil well in Wietze, the Wietze Drilling Department is responsible for the safe operation of our own drilling projects as well as drilling campaigns involving consortium partners.

One eye always on the environment

Extensive measures are undertaken to protect both human beings and the environment in all these drilling projects. For example, all the power plants, pumps and hydraulic lifting equipment needed for drilling operations is soundproofed. The entire drilling site is surrounded by a noise protection wall. By using electricity from the national grid to power the machines, we minimise operational emissions. At the drilling site we have installed watercourse protection facilities and during the actual drilling operations we protect the groundwater by employing a variety of technical measures. And we collect all drill cuttings and excess drilling fluids before disposing of them in a correct and responsible manner.

The drilling department operates the materials storage and our two company-owned drilling rigs T-150 and T-160.

T-150 drilling rig

The T-150 drilling rig is permanently installed on Mittelplate Drilling and Production Island in Schleswig-Holstein’s Wadden Sea. It enables us to work from this artificial island to develop Germany’s largest oilfield, in which wells are accessed at vertical depths of 2,000-3,000 metres. The rig has the capacity to drill lengths of up to 10,000 metres and is equipped with the latest technology.

T-160 drilling rig

In operation since 1997, our T-160 drilling rig is one of the most powerful in Europe. Our specialist crews use the T-160 to drill up to two gas wells a year in Lower Saxony, generally reaching depths of more than 5,000 metres. This electrically powered rig with a driving power of over 6,300 kW enables us to drill heavily deviated extended reach and horizontal wells to depths of more than 6,000 metres.