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From crude oil to geothermal power

Wintershall provides water park in the Pfalz town of Landau with geothermal power from a former crude oil reservoir 1,100 meters underground

Landau. From the summer of this year, Germany’s largest producer of crude oil and natural gas, Wintershall, will be providing the municipal water park “La Ola” in Landau in the Pfalz region with warm water and heating generated by geothermal power. An agreement to this effect has just been concluded. The energy comes from a former crude oil reservoir 1,100 me-ters underground in which 22,000 liters of water per hour circulate within a closed loop. “The decommissioned production site “La44” is one of 75 wells operated by our company here in the Landau region,” Dr. Thomas Ruttmann, Head of Wintershall’s operations at Landau, explains. However, technical modifications will have to be made before the crude oil well can be used for geothermal power: in future the heated water will be pumped to the surface via the tubing string at “well La44”. A heat pump and four heat exchangers will then supply the leisure pool, which is just 500 meters away, via a district heating pipe. “This cooperation will provide us with over a million kilowatt hours of environmentally friendly energy a year,” Thomas Hirsch, Managing Director of Stadtholding Landau in der Pfalz GmbH, the operating and holding company of the town, explained.

Since Landau is situated in the Upper Rhine Plain, it offers ideal conditions for generating geothermal energy. “With deep drilling, the temperature in-creases by an average of 4.7 degrees every 100 meters”, Dr. Ruttmann explains. He points out that this is considerably higher than the average increase in temperature of three degrees per 100 meters elsewhere. “That’s why there are a relatively high number of geothermal projects in the Landau region compared to other regions.” In order to develop former crude oil well La44, the three shareholders of the current concession, Ex-xonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH (EMPG), Internationale Tiefbohr GmbH & Co. KG (ITAG) and the wholly owned BASF subsidiary Winter-shall, have joined forces with Lan Tec GmbH, a subsidiary of EnergieSüd-west AG. The company specializes in the use of renewable energies and already operates several district heating networks in Landau in the Pfalz region.

Landau is home to the biggest crude oil field on the Upper Rhine Plain. The crude oil field is made up of eight blocks in which almost 200 wells in total have been drilled. The field was discovered in 1955 with the well “Landau 2”. Production of crude oil started in the same year. Overall more than 4.3 million tons of crude oil have been produced in Landau since then. The BASF subsidiary Wintershall holds a 50 percent share in the concession and also took over as operator. In addition to supplying the water park, the production operations in Landau currently use more than 13 million kWh of geothermal heat energy by treating the reservoir water. The energy generated this way is equivalent to the average consumption of over 350 households. With each household in Germany responsible for CO2 emissions of around 13 tons per year, this means a reduction of more than 4,500 tons of CO2 per year.
Wintershall, based in Kassel, Germany, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BASF in Ludwigshafen. The company has been active in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas for over 75 years. Wintershall focuses on selected core regions where the company has built up a high level of regional and technological expertise. These are Europe, North Afri-ca, South America, as well as Russia and the Caspian Sea region. Today, the company is Germany’s largest crude oil and natural gas producer and with its subsidiary, WINGAS, it is also an important gas supplier on the German and European market.

More information at: www.wintershall.com
Wintershall Holding AG

Press and Public Relations
P.O. Box 10 40 20
34112 Kassel, Germany
Phone: +49 561 301-3301
Fax: +49 561 301-1321

Stadtholding Landau in der Pfalz GmbH is the operating and holding company of the town Landau in the Pfalz region. It is responsible for the Landau Art Nouveau Festival Hall, the Altes Kaufhaus Arts Center, the LA OLA water park, the exhibition park and the municipal industrial track. The company is also responsible for operating the recently renovated “Freibad am Prießnitzweg” open-air swimming complex, which opened its doors on time for the 2008 season. In addition, the company also owns SH-Service GmbH and holds a stake in EnergieSüdwest AG.
More information at: www.stadtholding.de

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Tags: Crude Oil, geothermal, geothermal power