Putin orders seizure of OMV and Wintershall Dea stakes in Russian ventures, 20 December 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered that Germany's Wintershall Deaand Austria's OMV be stripped of multi-billion-dollar stakes in gas extraction projects in Russia's Arctic.

Under the presidential decrees...stakes held by OMV and Wintershall Dea in the Yuzhno-Russkoye field and in the Achimov projects are to revert to newly created Russian companies.

The Kremlin's biggest seizure of foreign assets in Russia comes after what Putin casts as a declaration of economic war by the West over Russia's decision to send thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022...

The Putin decrees formalise a loss of control that BASF and Wintershall Dea have flagged since January 2023. The decrees said the move was to safeguard national interests amid the illegal and unfriendly actions of the West in relation to Russian assets.

BASF and Wintershall Dea have said that Wintershall Dea's Russian assets, which accounted for about half its production, have been effectively expropriated by the state and needed to be written off...

BASF said...that the company learned of this information from the news and were currently analysing the situation in detail...

OMV's assets will be subsequently sold to the joint stock company SOGAZ, which provides insurance to Gazprom.

Proceeds from the sales will be placed in special accounts owned by their former foreign owners.

All corporate agreements previously in force are no longer valid, according to the decrees.