Wintershall Dea says to leave Russia completely

MOSCOW, Jan 18 (PRIME) -- German oil and gas company Wintershall Dea will leave Russia completely sticking to all the necessary legal procedures, the company said in a statement late on Tuesday.

“The Wintershall Dea Supervisory Board approved a principle decision by the Management Board to exit Russia. As a consequence, Wintershall Dea intends to fully exit Russia in an orderly manner complying with all applicable laws and regulations,” the statement read.

The company expects to suffer a non-cash loss from deconsolidation of joint ventures with Russian companies. Paired with other impairments connected to Russia, like the losses from ownership in Nord Stream AG and WIGA Transport Beteiligungs-GmbH & Co. KG, the combined loss stands at 5.3 billion euros, the company said.

In March 2022, the company said it would not carry out new oil and gas projects in Russia and write off around 1 billion euros it spent to finance the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Wintershall Dea CEO Mario Mehren said in October that the company was considering a legal possibility of deconsolidating its Russian assets away from the international business.

President Vladimir Putin in December signed a decree that restricted gas giant Gazprom from buying natural gas from its joint ventures with Austria’s OMV and Wintershall if the amount of liabilities under the contracts after March 1, 2022 and before October 1, 2023 exceeds the amount defined by the government.

Wintershall Dea has several joint ventures with Gazprom in Russia. Achimgaz, in which the German company owns 50%, develops Block 14 of the Urengoi field, while Achim Development, in which Wintershall owns 25.01%, develops the 4A and 5A blocks of the field Severneftegazprom, in which Wintershall has 35%, develops the Yuzhno-Russkoye field.

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