The German energy company Wintershall Dea has completely written off its 15.5% stake in the Nord Stream operator after the pipeline was damaged. This was reported on February 23 at report companies.
It is noted that the decision was made due to the impossibility of predicting the costs and timeframes that may be required to restore gas pipelines in the current international situation.
“Due to the geopolitical situation, it is impossible to predict the time frame and costs for stabilizing and restoring the gas transmission infrastructure, and therefore, Wintershall Dea has written off its investment in full,” the report says.
On January 17, it became known that Wintershall Dea decided to leave Russia and withdraw from assets in the Russian Federation in accordance with legal obligations. As noted, Wintershall is expected to record a loss of €5.3 billion from the deconsolidation.
Commenting on this decision, the leading expert of the National Energy Security Fund and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Stanislav Mitrakhovich, noted that Wintershall Dea “held to the last” and was more stable compared to other outgoing companies. He noted that the German company was a partner of Gazprom in Nord Stream, a creditor of Nord Stream 2. They had joint ventures in Germany, the Gascade company, which built the Eugal gas pipeline (an onshore extension of Nord Stream 2).
Mitrakhovchi also noted that, in his opinion, the situation will not get worse after the departure of Wintershall Dea, but the fact that a trusted partner of Gazprom leaves the country “is an overall unpleasant situation.”
Earlier, on December 22, 2022, it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree prohibiting Gazprom from buying natural gas from joint ventures with Wintershall Dea and OMV at a higher price than the established price. The Decree applies to obligations that are due after March 1, 2022.
The press secretary of the head of state, Dmitry Peskov, then said that such a decision was a response to the actions of a number of unfriendly countries.
Leaks at Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 were discovered in September 2022. The representative of the seismic center of Sweden, Bjorn Lund, said that two powerful underwater explosions were registered in the area of leaks in pipelines at the time of the emergency. Traces of explosives were found at the crash site. The Russian Federation called the incident an act of state terrorism.
