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☆ ADNOC German oil deal has bad timing, good logic
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Karen Kwok | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the state-owned Abu Dhabi oil giant he runs, is considering a bid for BASF-owned (BASFn.DE) Wintershall Dea, at a potential $11 billion valuation. The UAE firm is already in talks to buy chemical company Covestro (1COV.DE), Wintershall’s German compatriot, for $12 billion. Abu Dhabi's oil riches mean the UAE firm has the wherewithal to pay 5.5 billion euros for BASF’s Wintershall stake. Any deal could value Wintershall Dea at more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion), Bloomberg reported. BASF holds a 72.7% stake in Wintershall Dea.

Persons: Toru Hanai, Wintershall, Jaber, It’s, Austria’s, Abu, LetterOne, George Hay, Streisand Neto Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, BASF, The, Shell, Russian, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Abu, National Oil Company, Bloomberg, Wintershall Dea . Investment, Thomson Locations: Gastech, Chiba, Japan, Abu Dhabi, The UAE, Germany, Norway, UAE, Europe, United Kingdom, Abu, Russia, Wintershall Dea

The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, November 21, 2023. The pan-European STOXX 600 (.STOXX) rose 0.4% to close out the week with a 0.9% gain as investors focused on corporate earnings and the prospect of rate cuts. Euro zone government bond yields were set to close the week higher as investors balanced recession fears against comments from European Central Bank policymakers pushing against market expectations for rate cuts in 2024. For the week, real estate (.SX86P) shares lagged while media (.SXMP) and retail stocks (.SXRP) were the top performers. Reporting by Ankika Biswas and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema, Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Wintershall, they're, Giles Coghlan, Coghlan, Christian Lindner, Germany's DAX, Ankika Biswas, Bansari, Sonia Cheema, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: REUTERS, Staff, BASF, U.S, European Central Bank, Shoppers, Bloomberg News, Abu, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co, Barclays, German, Thomson Locations: Frankfurt, Germany, Europe, Abu Dhabi, Israel, Bengaluru

☆ Q+A What is known about the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Nerijus Adomaitis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

This is what we know so far:WHAT ARE NORD STREAM PIPELINES? The multibillion-dollar infrastructure project was built by Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) in two stages - Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. Gazprom owns 51% of Nord Stream 1, while Germany's E.ON (EONGn.DE) and Wintershall Dea (WINT.UL) have 15.5% each, while French Engie (ENGIE.PA) and Dutch Gasunie (GSUNI.UL) hold 9% each in Nord Stream 1. Nord Stream 2, fully owned by Gazprom and operated by Nord Stream 2 AG, was completed in September 2021 at a cost of $11 billion, but was never put into operation because Germany had cancelled Nord Stream 2's certification days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The Nord Stream pipelines have been a flashpoint in an energy dispute between Europe and Moscow since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Persons: Pipes, Fabian Bimmer, Wintershall, OMV, Peter Frank, Die, Seymour Hersh, Mats Ljungqvist, Der Spiegel, Der Siegel, BfV, Nerijus Adomaitis, Christoph Steitz, Nina Chestney, Ros Russell Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Gazprom, Nord, E.ON, Shell, . Security, WHO, Washington Post, Die Welt, . Security Council, Reuters, Street, ZDF, Kyiv, CIA, NDR, WDR, German Federal Intelligence Service, Thomson Locations: Baltic, Mukran, Germany, Rights OSLO, Russia, Swedish, Bornholm, Sweden, Denmark, Nord, Ukraine, Uniper, Washington, NATO, Moscow, Kaliningrad, Russian, Britain ., U.S, Norway, China, Brazil, Rostock, Wiek, Rugen, Danish, Christianso, Kolobrzeg, Poland, Europe, United States, Oslo, Frankfurt

☆ The world's largest floating wind farm is now officially open — and helping to power North Sea oil operations
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Floating offshore wind turbines are different from fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines, which are rooted to the seabed. One advantage of floating turbines is that they can be installed in far deeper waters than fixed-bottom ones. In recent years a range of companies and major economies like the U.S. have laid out goals to ramp up floating wind installations. Alongside Equinor, partners in the Hywind Tampen project include Vår Energi, INPEX Idemitsu, Petoro, Wintershall Dea and OMV. Back in 2017, it started operations at Hywind Scotland, a five-turbine, 30 MW facility it calls the planet's first floating wind farm.

Persons: Equinor, Tampen, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, INPEX, Wintershall, Equinor's Siri Kindem, General, Antonio Guterres Organizations: United Nations Locations: Norwegian, Norway, OMV, Hywind Scotland, North, Sharm el, Sheikh, Egypt

☆ BASF maintains 2023 forecast, faces subdued demand
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, April 27 (Reuters) - German chemicals giant BASF (BASFn.DE) on Thursday maintained its profit forecast for 2023 but warned of great uncertainty in the global economy as it saw demand weaken across its segments. BASF is targeting sales this year in a range of 84-87 billion euros ($92.84-$96.15 billion) and adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 4.8-5.4 billion euros, the company said upon confirming its preliminary results for the first quarter. "BASF started off 2023 better than analysts had expected – and in a stagnating and difficult economic environment," said chief executive Martin Brudermueller. Earlier this month, the company reported higher-than-forecast first-quarter adjusted EBIT of 1.93 billion euros, falling by almost a third compared to the same quarter of 2022. However, first-quarter sales fell by 13% to 20 billion euros as a result of lower volumes across almost all segments.

Uwe Oppitz of Rhenus Ports, who speaks for Energy Hub Port Wilhelmshaven, said that Wintershall Dea (WINT.UL) (BASFn.DE), Uniper (UN01.DE) and Tree Energy Solutions (TES) plan to spend a total of more than 5 billion euros at Wilhelmshaven. Energy Hub Port Wilhelmshaven comprises 30 companies, which include E.ON (EONGn.DE), RWE (RWEG.DE) and Orsted (ORSTED.CO), as well as Wilhelmshaven's home state of Lower Saxony. "Wintershall Dea plans to invest around 1 billion euros in the Wilhelmshaven site together with its partners," it said. And steelmaker Salzgitter (SZGG.DE) has already struck a deal with Uniper to receive green hydrogen for its steel mill processes, replacing essential fossil-fuel produced hydrogen. "We don't want to push green hydrogen to the side.

[1/5] The logo of Nord Stream AG is seen at an office building in the town of Vyborg, Leningrad Region, Russia August 22, 2022. Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipes, were built by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom to pump 110 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas a year to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Three of the pipes were ruptured by unexplained blasts in September, and one of the Nord Stream 2 pipes remains intact. Engie (ENGIE.PA), Gasunie (GSUNI.UL) and Wintershall DEA (WINT.UL) (BASFn.DE) - stakeholders in Nord Stream AG, the operator of Nord Stream 1 - declined to comment. The similar-sized Nord Stream 2 had been completed in September 2021 as tensions with Russia were growing and ran in trouble as Germany's regulators refused to certify it.

☆ BASF to cut 2,600 jobs on high costs in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A view of a chemical plant of German company BASF, in Ludwigshafen, Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany, on October 06, 2022 in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF said it would cut 2,600 jobs and halt its share buybacks as it warned of a further decline in earnings reflecting high costs in Europe, uncertainty due to the war in Ukraine and rising interest rates. BASF, which in October laid out plans to cut annual costs in Europe by 500 million euros, said on Friday that this would translate into about 2,600 job cuts, about 65% of which would be in Germany and laid out plans to cut another 200 million euros in annual costs. A share buyback programme, with 3 billion euros earmarked early last year, will be stopped early after 1.4 billion euros spent on own shares due to "profound changes in the global economy", it added. Among the cutbacks in Ludwigshafen, BASF will stop production of caprolactam used in engineering plastics and textile fibres, using instead a production line in Belgium.

☆ BASF flags earnings decline, job cuts on high costs in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Ludwig Burger | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The German chemicals giant said in a statement on Friday that 2023 earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), adjusted for special items, would fall to between 4.8 billion euros ($5.09 billion) and 5.4 billion from 6.9 billion in 2022, which was down 11.5% from 2021. BASF, which in October laid out plans to cut annual costs in Europe by 500 million euros, said on Friday that this would translate into about 2,600 job cuts, about 65% of which would be in Germany and laid out plans to cut another 200 million euros in annual costs. A share buyback programme, with 3 billion euros earmarked early last year, will be stopped early after 1.4 billion euros spent on own shares due to "profound changes in the global economy", it added. On Friday, it revised the net loss downwards to 627 million euros. Among the cutbacks in Ludwigshafen, BASF will stop production of caprolactam used in engineering plastics and textile fibres, using instead a production line in Belgium.

☆ Moscow's decades-old gas ties with Europe lie in ruins
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Vladimir Soldatkin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

Washington has long criticised Germany's policy of reliance on Russian energy, which until last year, Berlin had said was a means to improve relations. In October, he mooted an idea of a gas hub in Turkey to divert the Russian gas flows from the Baltic Sea and North-West Europe. The 20-year supply deal is worth about $30 billion in current gas prices. In Europe, gas prices hit record levels and international oil prices shortly after the special military operation began spiked close to their all-time high. Domestic gas prices are regulated by the government and there have been discussions about liberalising the gas market, a sensitive issue for Russian households.

BERLIN/FRANKFURT, Jan 19 (Reuters) - BASF (BASFn.DE) investors said that oil and gas business Wintershall Dea's exit from Russia, though painful, clears the way for plans to take it public and for BASF to focus on its chemicals operations. Portfolio manager Arne Rautenberg of mutual fund company Union Investment, among the 10 largest BASF shareholders, welcomed BASF drawing a line. "This step will facilitate an IPO of Wintershall Dea," said Cornelia Zimmermann, a corporate governance specialist at mutual fund group Deka Investment. BASF said last year that the oil and gas company's exposure in Russia was the reason for it to hold off on plans to take Wintershall Dea public. Before the Ukraine war, Russia had accounted for roughly half of WD's global oil and gas output.

☆ Germany’s BASF to Swing to Loss on Russia-Related Impairment
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Georgi Kantchev | Mauro Orru | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

BERLIN—Germany’s chemicals giant BASF SE said it would take a roughly 7.3-billion-euro hit, equivalent to about $7.9 billion, from the exit of its energy unit from Russia and that it expects a net loss for 2022 in the latest major corporate fallout from the war in Ukraine. After putting a stop to new projects in Russia following the start of the invasion last year, oil-and-gas producer Wintershall Dea AG, where BASF is a majority shareholder, now plans to fully leave Russia, it said.

☆ Wintershall Dea to leave Russia, causing net loss at BASF
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

"Wintershall Dea will end its Russian activities. Continuing to operate in Russia is not tenable," said Mario Mehren, CEO of Wintershall Dea, which is a 72.7%-27.3% joint venture between BASF and Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's investment firm LetterOne. BASF said the impairment would cause a 1.4 billion euros net loss in 2022 according to preliminary results. Wintershall Dea intends to fully exit Russia, BASF said, citing "extensive loss of actual influence and economic expropriation" in the country. Earnings before interest and tax were 6.5 billion euros, slightly below analysts' estimates of 6.8 billion euros.

☆ Wintershall Dea urges Germany to clear CO2 exports for storage
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

FRANKFURT, Jan 16 (Reuters) - German oil and gas producer Wintershall Dea (WINT.UL) (BASFn.DE) urged Berlin on Monday to clear exports of carbon dioxide to European neighbours that would be buried in so-called carbon capture and storage facilities (CCS). Wintershall is involved in various CCS projects, including in Norway and Denmark, which aim to store CO2 in depleted oil and gas fields. The early capture of CO2 emissions in the production process and their subsequent storage could help achieve climate targets and provide a new area of activity for hydrocarbon exploration companies. Unavoidable residual emissions in Germany currently amount to well over 40 million tonnes per year from industries such as chemicals and cement, Langemann said. Wintershall Dea plans to build up a business capturing 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 per annum by 2040.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology removes CO2 emissions from the atmosphere and stores them underground. * Smeaheia, a project by Equinor to develop a storage site in the North Sea with a potential to inject up to 20 mtpa from 2027/2028. The project plans to transport CO2 via pipelines to a storage site some 145 km offshore in the southern North Sea. ICELAND* The Coda Terminal will be a cross-border carbon transport and storage hub in Straumsvík, operated by Icelandic carbon storage firm Carbfix. The full capture, transport and storage chain will handle up to 100,000 mtpa of CO2.

☆ Equinor and partners to invest $1.44 bln in Arctic gas field
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

OSLO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Norway's Equinor (EQNR.OL) and its partners on Tuesday said they would invest 14.8 billion Norwegian crowns ($1.44 billion) in developing the Irpa gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea. "The Irpa development will use available processing capacity on the Hansteen platform when production gradually declines and at the same time contribute to extending the life of the Hansteen field," Norway's energy ministry said in a statement. Production is expected to start in the final quarter of 2026 and last until 2039, the development plan showed. Equinor, the field's operator, has a 51% stake in the Irpa license, with state-owned Petoro holding 20%, Wintershall Dea 19% and Shell (SHEL.L) 10%. ($1 = 10.2451 Norwegian crowns)Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik and Anna RingstromOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The 'world's largest floating wind farm' produces its first power
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

A facility described as the world's largest floating wind farm produced its first power over the weekend, with more turbines set to come online before the year is out. The use of a floating wind farm to help power the production of fossil fuels is likely to spark some controversy, however. Earlier this year, meanwhile, the White House said it was targeting 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind capacity by the year 2035. As well as the 15 GW ambition, a "Floating Offshore Wind Shot" aims to reduce the costs of floating technologies by over 70% by the year 2035. "Bringing floating offshore wind technology to scale will unlock new opportunities for offshore wind power off the coasts of California and Oregon, in the Gulf of Maine, and beyond," the statement added.

☆ German government says in talks with Wintershall Dea about Russia production
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

FRANKFURT, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The German government is in talks with oil and gas producer Wintershall Dea (WINT.UL)(BASFn.DE) after a media report that the company's Russian gas condensate production helps support the Russian war effort against Ukraine, a spokesperson said. Asked for a comment, Wintershall Dea has pointed to its statement on Friday saying it rejected the accusations and reserved the right to consider legal action. German magazine Spiegel and public broadcaster ZDF had reported on Friday that their investigations had shown that gas condensate produced in Russia by joint ventures between Wintershall Dea and Gazprom (GAZP.MM) was processed into jet fuel, among other uses. Citing a military expert, the outlets said the jet fuel delivered by Wintershall Dea to Gazprom could be used for military purposes. Wintershall Dea had no influence over gas and condensate deliveries from two joint ventures, Achimgaz and Achim Development, to Gazprom, but they were marketed mostly for petrochemical applications, it said.

☆ BASF to slash costs in Europe, takes writedown on Nord Stream 1
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Ludwig Burger | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FRANKFURT, Oct 12 (Reuters) - German chemicals group BASF (BASFn.DE) said it would slash annual costs by 500 million euros ($485 million) in Europe until 2024 and look into restructuring its chemical sites in the region over the longer term after it was hit by high energy prices. It cited significantly weaker earnings in Europe due to "deteriorating framework conditions" and a loss in Germany in the third quarter. In an unscheduled statement, BASF also said its third-quarter net income was below market expectations due to a 740 million euro writedown linked to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. BASF, which is due to publish detailed results on Oct. 26, said global third-quarter sales and operating income before special items came in slightly higher than analysts had expected, buoyed by a strong U.S. dollar. ($1 = 1.0320 euros)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Miranda MurrayOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

A logo is seen on the facade of the BASF plant in Schweizerhalle near Basel July 7, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File PhotoFRANKFURT, Oct 12 (Reuters) - BASF (BASFn.DE) is to reduce annual costs by 500 million euros ($485 million) in Europe up to 2024, including job cuts, as the German chemicals group took a 740 million euro writedown linked to the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. BASF cited significantly weaker earnings in Europe due to "deteriorating framework conditions" and a loss in Germany in the third quarter as reasons for the cutbacks. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterThe group said its third-quarter net income was below market expectations due to the 740 million euro writedown linked to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. A BASF spokesperson said job cuts would be part of the efficiency drive, declining to give a number.

☆ Factbox: Nord Stream's role in Russia's gas supply to Europe
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The logo of Nord Stream AG is seen at an office building in the town of Vyborg, Leningrad Region, Russia August 22, 2022. Below are further details of the importance of the pipeline in carrying Russian gas to Europe. In Germany, the gas is received by the connecting pipelines OPAL (Baltic Sea Pipeline Link) and NEL (North European Gas Pipeline), which link into the European grid. OWNERSThe pipeline is majority-owned by Gazprom (GAZP.MM) and forms the main route through which Russian gas flows to Germany. OPERATORSThe Switzerland-based Nord Stream AG consortium is the operating company for transit, technical, legal and environmental matters, but does not own the asset or the gas in it.

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