Wintershall Dea
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. It is planning listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The company has numerous gas assets in Russia and has been a key actor in financing the Nord Stream 2 project, lending substantial sums to the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom . 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, Russian oligarch and prominent enabler of the Vladimir Putin 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 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 in the Wadden Sea, which began production in 1987. Wintershall Dea was created on 1 May 2019 through the merger of Wintershall and DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG. On 27 September 2018, the binding contract between the respective parent companies, BASF and LetterOne, on the merger of DEA and Wintershall was  announced. In August 2020, Wintershall Dea signed a cooperation memorandum with Sonatrach of Algeria. Operations. Wintershall Dea operates in the field of gas and oil exploration and production in a total of 13 countries in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa and Russia. The company has its headquarters in Kassel and Hamburg and employs around 2,800 people worldwide. Its Chief Executive Officer is Mario Mehren. According to Wintershall DEA’s pro forma figures, revenues and other income amounted to €5.9 billion in 2019. Wintershall Dea owns 40% of the Bergknapp prospect. It is also the operator of  the prospect. Wintershall Dea is one of the financers of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.