Around the world, many great projects are changing the built environment and our infrastructure – but sometimes progress is slow and they slip off the radar. This column follows their development.

North Sea

Wind-powered offshore rig

In 2017 Netherlands-based oil and gas company ONE-Dyas discovered the N05-A oil field in the North Sea. It is located in an area known as GEMS – ‘Gateway to the Ems’ – at the mouth of the Ems River estuary on the border between the Netherlands and Germany.

The project was given the go-ahead by the Dutch government in June 2022 when the final permits were granted. In December 2022 construction of the platform got under way at HSM Offshore Energy yard in Schiedam, Netherlands.

The N05-A platform will be the first Dutch offshore gas treatment platform to run entirely on wind energy, with power coming from the nearby German wind farm Riffgat. This means the platform will have virtually zero emissions and negligible environmental impacts.

New pipeline requirements...