“For our decommissioning project in Leybucht in East Frisia, we ultimately received a great deal of praise from all the relevant authorities involved. That makes me particularly proud. After all, no other project from 2025 probably epitomises nature conservation and environmental protection quite as much as this one. The reason is the unique location. We carried out plugging and abandonment of a former natural gas production platform around 1.5 kilometres off the North Sea coast – this site is now situated in the heart of the Wadden Sea UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. Whilst we are legally obliged to carry out the plugging and abandonment, we were able to demonstrate sensitivity during the project.
On the one hand, this was due to our excellent collaboration with the Deichacht Krummhörn. The association is responsible for coastal protection and dyke construction. Specialist firms carried out the plugging and abandonment of the platform on our behalf. The Deichacht commissioned the lorry transports of the tested materials that made up the former production platform.
This is because large quantities of the building materials were reused to reinforce a nearby dyke. In total, lorries transported around 2,500 loads of armourstones, reinforced concrete, milled asphalt and sand.
At the same time, the construction work took place within the habitat of many special species of flora and fauna. We took this into account by providing continuous ecological supervision throughout the project. Two pairs of oystercatchers had already built their nests on the former platform whilst work was underway. The workers therefore maintained a safe distance from the nests at all times. From now on, however, we are once again leaving the nature reserve entirely to the birds.”