According to a presidential decree, the German Wintershall Dea and the Austrian OMV are to formally lose their shares in gas production projects in the Russian Arctic. All activities with Russian involvement are to be legally separated by mid-2024. This also includes Wintershall Dea’s participation in the Nord Stream gas pipeline and the joint venture with Gazprom. This emerges from a decree signed by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.
Accordingly, the interests of OMV and Wintershall Dea in the Yuzhno Russkoye field and in the Achimov projects, both of which are located in the Yamal-Nenets region in the far north of Russia, are to be transferred to newly founded Russian companies.
All shares that foreign companies hold in joint ventures with the gas giant Gazprom are to be transferred to the new Russian companies. The proceeds from the sale of the shares will be transferred to special accounts of the previous foreign owners, it continues. All previously valid company contracts will no longer be valid once the decree is signed.
OMV had already withdrawn from Russia last year after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict. Wintershall Dea, a joint venture between BASF and Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s investment company Letter One, is about to withdraw from Russia.