Wintershall Dea GmbH is a German gas and oil producer. The joint venture was created in May 2019 by the merger between
Wintershall Holding GmbH and
DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG. BASF SE has a 67% stake in it, with the other 33% being held by
LetterOne
LetterOne Holdings S.A. (LetterOne) is an international investment business based in Luxembourg. Its investments are focused on the Telecommunication, telecoms, technology and Energy industry, energy sectors through its two main business units, ...
, whose main ultimate owner is the Russian business magnate
Mikhail Fridman
Mikhail Maratovich Fridman (also transliterated Mikhail Friedman; russian: Михаил Маратович Фридман; he, מיכאיל פרידמן; born 21 April 1964) is a Ukrainian-born, Russian–Israeli businessman, billionaire, and ...
. it was planning listing on the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (german: link=no, Börse Frankfurt, former German name – FWB) is the world's 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time).
Organisation
Locat ...
.
the company had numerous gas assets in Russia and was a key actor in financing the
Nord Stream 2
Nord Stream 2 (German-English mixed expression; german: Nord and en, Stream 2, literally 'North Stream2'; russian: Северный поток — 2) is a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany running through the Baltic Sea, financed by ...
project, lending substantial sums to the Russian state-owned energy giant
Gazprom
PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...
.
On the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, DEA advocated against punitive measures on Russia that focused on gas supply and pipelines.
When Germany suspended Nord Stream 2 due to Russia's invasion, DEA argued that it should be compensated for its €730 million investment in the pipeline.
Mikhail Fridman
Mikhail Maratovich Fridman (also transliterated Mikhail Friedman; russian: Михаил Маратович Фридман; he, מיכאיל פרידמן; born 21 April 1964) is a Ukrainian-born, Russian–Israeli businessman, billionaire, and ...
, Russian oligarch and prominent enabler of the
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
regime in Russia, is a minority shareholder in DEA.
History
Wintershall was founded in 1894 and DEA was founded five years later as Deutsche Tiefbohr-Actiengesellschaft. The two companies began to work together more intensively since the 1950s.
In 1952, Wintershall and DEA acquired the majority in Deutsche Gasolin AG which later merged with its sister company
Aral AG Aral may refer to:
People
* Cahit Aral (1927–2011), Turkish engineer, politician and former government minister
* Coşkun Aral (born 1956), Turkish photo journalist and war correspondent
* Göran Aral (born 1953), Swedish footballer
* Meriç Ar ...
in connection with the construction of the Emsland oil refinery. Another consequence of their collaboration was the joint establishment of Germany's only offshore drilling platform
Mittelplate
Mittelplate is Germany's largest oil field, from the shore, in the environmentally important Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Parks tidal flats. The development of the field was done by a consortium of RWE Dea and Wintershall. By the 20t ...
in the
Wadden Sea
The Wadden Sea ( nl, Waddenzee ; german: Wattenmeer; nds, Wattensee or ; da, Vadehavet; fy, Waadsee, longname=yes; frr, di Heef) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern conti ...
, which began production in 1987.
On 27 September 2018, the respective parent companies of Wintershall, namely BASF and of LetterOne, namely DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG announced the binding contract for the merger of their daughter companies. Wintershall Dea was created on 1 May 2019 through the merger of Wintershall and .
In August 2020, Wintershall Dea signed a cooperation memorandum with
Sonatrach
Sonatrach ( ar, سوناطراك; french: Société Nationale pour la Recherche, la Production, le Transport, la Transformation, et la Commercialisation des Hydrocarbures) is the national state-owned oil company of Algeria. Founded in 1963, it is ...
of Algeria.
[
][
]
Operations
Wintershall Dea operated in the field of gas and oil exploration and production in 13 countries in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
,
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
, the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
,
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
with headquarters in
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
and
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
. it employed around 2,800 people worldwide. Its Chief Executive Officer has been Mario Mehren.
According to Wintershall DEA’s pro forma figures, revenues and other income amounted to €5.9 billion in 2019.
Wintershall Dea owned 40% of the Bergknapp prospect. It has also been the operator of the prospect.
[
]
Russia
the company had numerous gas assets in Russia and was a key actor in financing the
Nord Stream 2
Nord Stream 2 (German-English mixed expression; german: Nord and en, Stream 2, literally 'North Stream2'; russian: Северный поток — 2) is a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany running through the Baltic Sea, financed by ...
project, lending substantial sums to the Russian state-owned energy giant
Gazprom
PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...
.
On the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, DEA advocated against punitive measures on Russia that focused on gas supply and pipelines.
When Germany suspended Nord Stream 2 due to Russia's invasion, DEA argued that it should be compensated for its €730 million investment in the pipeline.
Mikhail Fridman
Mikhail Maratovich Fridman (also transliterated Mikhail Friedman; russian: Михаил Маратович Фридман; he, מיכאיל פרידמן; born 21 April 1964) is a Ukrainian-born, Russian–Israeli businessman, billionaire, and ...
, Russian oligarch and prominent enabler of the
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
regime in Russia, has been a minority shareholder in DEA.
In January 2023, about one year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Wintershall Dea stopped its business operations in Russia with an estimated loss of 1.4 billion Euros. The Russian side had allegedly plundered the bank accounts of partnership projects and the Russian state effectivly seized profits generated since March 2022. Several of Wintershall Deas lost investments in Russia were secured by German government guarantees.
Bibliography
* Rainer Karlsch, Raymond G. Stokes: ''Faktor Öl. Die Mineralölwirtschaft in Deutschland 1859-1974.'' (“The Factor Oil: The Mineral Oil industry in Germany from 1859 to 1974 (German Only)) C. H. Beck, Munich 2003,
References
External links
* {{official, https://wintershalldea.com/
Oil companies of Germany
Natural gas companies of Germany
BASF