Wintershall Dea’s exploration, development, and production operations are focused on Northern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America
Wintershall Dea has upstream operations across Northern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. (Credit: Wintershall Dea/ Ludwig Schöpfer)
UAE’s state-owned energy company ADNOC is reportedly considering the possibility of acquiring European gas and oil company Wintershall Dea.
A potential transaction might value Wintershall Dea at over €10bn, as reported by Bloomberg News.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the publication wrote that UK-listed Harbour Energy is also one of the interested parties evaluating Wintershall Dea.
Wintershall Dea is a joint venture of German chemicals company BASF and LetterOne, an investment firm of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman.
The gas and oil firm has has acknowledged the “new realities” following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. This event prompted the de-consolidation of its Russian activities.
With Russia constituting half of its production, the group has been notably affected among German firms operating in Russia. Concurrently, BASF is reportedly in discussions with the German government regarding state guarantees for the Russian operations of Wintershall Dea, as reported in local press last month.
Earlier this year, BASF CEO Martin Brudermueller announced the company’s intention to divest from Wintershall Dea, while expressing a preference for a market listing as the chosen option.
Wintershall Dea concentrates its exploration, development, and production efforts in Northern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. The company was created via the merger of Wintershall and DEA Deutsche Erdoel in 2019.
For the third quarter of 2023 (Q3 2023), Wintershall Dea reported production of 324 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (mboe/d). The company’s net debt during the reported period stood at €2.4bn.
Last month, the company alongside its partners produced the first gas from the ED2-X well in the East Damanhur block, onshore Nile Delta, Egypt.
In September of this year, the company unveiled specific structural adjustments within its business, aiming to enhance its competitiveness, lower administrative costs, and sharpen its focus on strategic priorities. As part of this initiative, the company implemented workforce reductions, affecting approximately 500 employees, with around 300 of them based in Germany.