There are numerous ocean areas in the world with extreme shallow water conditions (say 0 to 2 or 4 m water depth), e.g. in the German Bight, in the north of the Caspian Sea, in the swamps of Nigeria. Access to these ‘amphibic’ areas becomes a major problem in all stages of a project; for personnel, materials, transport and installation of platforms and modules, safety and rescue, maintenance.

The choice of the ‘right’ plant base (artificial island, barge solutions, piled platforms, or other) and the corresponding export facilities are of crucial importance. These aspects have to be covered simultaneously for all construction stages and have major impact on CAPEX and OPEX as well as on the ease of operation.