Munich: Stadtwerke sell oil business – Munich

Stadtwerke München (SWM) are pushing the exit from the business with the extraction of crude oil. Together with their British partner Centrica, they have sold their large drilling sites and fields on Norwegian territory. Centrica published a corresponding notification on Wednesday morning. A British field is also said to have been sold. The buyers come from Norway and are expected to pay a total of around one billion euros. According to Centrica, the share of the municipal utilities should be well over 200 million euros.

With this step, the municipal utilities are complying with a demand from city policy. The sale of the oil business is said to be part of the city’s climate change, which the Greens and the SPD are aiming for. The promotion of fossil fuels in the North Sea has long been criticized, especially by environmental organizations.

In 2017, the municipal utilities founded the joint company Spirit Energy with the British company Centrica, into which they had contributed their drilling rights and fields. SWM hold 31 percent in the company. Centrica originally wanted to sell all of its shares, but because of the Corona crisis and the low gas and oil prices, these plans failed. Since the market for fossil fuels has improved significantly, the companies Sval Energi and Equinor found each other as buyers.