Wintershall Dea
Company typeGerman limited liability company (GmbH)
IndustryGas and oil (exploration and production)
Predecessors
Founded1894 (Wintershall), 1899 (DEA, as Deutsche Tiefbohr-Actiengesellschaft, DTA)
FoundersCarl Julius Winter, Heinrich Grimberg (Wintershall), Rudolf Nöllenburg (first Managing Director of DTA)
HeadquartersKassel and Hamburg,
Germany
Areas served
Northern Europe, Russia, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa
Key people
Mario Mehren (CEO)
Hugo Dijkgraaf (CTO)
Paul Smith (CFO)
Thilo Wieland (Region Russia, Latin America and Transportation and Interim Responsible MENA)
Production output
  • Natural gas: 445.000 BOE
  • Crude oil: 172.000 BOE (excluding Libya onshore due to the change to EPSA contracts)
Revenue€5.9 billion[1] (2019)
€2.8 billion (2019)
Number of employees
2,847[2] (2019)
Websitewintershalldea.com

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, whose main ultimate owner is the Russian business magnate Mikhail Fridman. As of 2020 it was planning listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.[3]

In 2021, Wintershall Dea was ranked no. 25 out of 120 oil, gas, and mining companies involved in resource extraction north of the Arctic Circle in the Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index (AERI).[4]

History

Main articles: Wintershall and DEA AG

Wintershall was founded in 1894 and DEA was founded five years later as Deutsche Tiefbohr-Actiengesellschaft.[5][6] The two companies began to work together more intensively since the 1950s.[7] In 1952, Wintershall and DEA acquired the majority in Deutsche Gasolin AG[8] which later merged with its sister company Aral AG in connection with the construction of the Emsland oil refinery.[9] Another consequence of their collaboration was the joint establishment of Germany's only offshore drilling platform Mittelplate in the Wadden Sea, which began production in 1987.[10]

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 . [11]

In August 2020, Wintershall Dea signed a cooperation memorandum with Sonatrach of Algeria.[12][13]

Operations

As of 2019 Wintershall Dea operated in the field of gas and oil exploration and production in 13 countries in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa and Russia with headquarters in Kassel and Hamburg. As of 2019 it employed around 2,800 people worldwide. Its chief executive officer has been Mario Mehren.[2] According to Wintershall DEA's pro forma figures, revenues and other income amounted to €5.9 billion in 2019.[1]

As of 2020 Wintershall Dea owned 40% of the Bergknapp prospect. It has also been the operator of the prospect.[14]

Russia

As of 2020 the company had numerous gas assets in Russia and was a key factor in financing the Nord Stream 2 project, lending substantial sums to the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom.[15][16] 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.[16] 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.[15]

Mikhail Fridman, Russian oligarch and prominent enabler of the Vladimir Putin regime in Russia, has been a minority shareholder in DEA.[15][17]

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.[18]

In December 2023 a Russian presidential decree gave the government the power to confiscate and forcibly sell off assets belonging to European energy firms including shares in the Yuzhno-Russkoye oil and gas field, currently owned by Austria’s OMV and Wintershall Dea.[19]

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ a b Wadewitz, Sabine (2020-03-19). "Wintershall Dea kürzt Investitionen" [Wintershall Dea cuts investments]. Börsen-Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  2. ^ a b "Annual Report 2019" (PDF). Wintershall DEA. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
  3. ^ Denina, Clara (2020-03-09). "Wintershall to delay Frankfurt IPO on coronavirus, price war - sources". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
  4. ^ Overland, I., Bourmistrov, A., Dale, B., Irlbacher‐Fox, S., Juraev, J., Podgaiskii, E., Stammler, F., Tsani, S., Vakulchuk, R. and Wilson, E.C. 2021. The Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index: A method to rank heterogenous extractive industry companies for governance purposes. Business Strategy and the Environment. 30, 1623–1643. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bse.2698
  5. ^ Will, Barbara (2019-02-20). "125 Jahre Wintershall: Die Konzerngeschichte begann mit Salz" [125 years of Wintershall: The company's history began with salt]. HNA (in German). Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  6. ^ "DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG ist 120 Jahre alt - Fusion in Planung" [DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG is 120 years old - merger in planning] (Press release) (in German). DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG. 2019-01-10. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  7. ^ "125 years of Wintershall: Anniversary year and start of a new chapter in the company's history". World Oil. 2019-02-13. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  8. ^ "Wintershall Dea". Fact Harbor. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  9. ^ Schaeffer, Erhard (2015-02-19). "Erinnerungen im Netz: NITAG ein deutsches Mineralölunternehmen der Wintershall mit eigener Tankstellenkette auch in Kassel" [NITAG, a German oil company owned by Wintershall with its own chain of petrol stations also in Kassel]. Memories on the Net. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  10. ^ "Digital twin extending life of North Sea Mittelplate platform". Offshore Magazine. 2019-11-26. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  11. ^ "Wintershall, DEA reach agreement on German oil & gas merger". Xinhua. 2018-09-28. Archived from the original on September 28, 2018. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  12. ^ "Algeria's Sonatrach signs upstream MOU with Germany's Wintershall Dea". S&P Global Platts. 2020-08-17. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
  13. ^ Hamid Ould Ahmed (2020-08-17). "Algeria's Sonatrach, Wintershall Dea sign MoU to boost partnership". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
  14. ^ "Wintershall Dea discovers oil near Maria field offshore Norway". Offshore Technology. 2020-04-08. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
  15. ^ a b c Miller, Joe (2022-02-24). "Nord Stream 2 backer Wintershall Dea says it expects compensation". Financial Times. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  16. ^ a b Elliott, Stuart (2022-02-22). "Wintershall Dea says 'misguided' to focus on gas supply, pipelines amid Ukraine crisis". www.spglobal.com. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  17. ^ Pop, Valentina; Fleming, Sam; Seddon, Max (2022-02-28). "EU freezes assets of Russia's leading oligarchs and allies of Putin". Financial Times. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  18. ^ "„Putin hat es sich einfach genommen"". FAZ.NET (in German). 2023-01-18. ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  19. ^ "Russia to seize energy assets from 'unfriendly' European countries". 20 December 2023.

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