Wintershall

Wintershall AG (speak: Vinters·hull) is the largest crude oil and natural gas producer in Germany. The company is based in Kassel, Germany. Wintershall is a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF, based in Ludwigshafen. The name Wintershall sits down from the surname of the enterprise co-founder Carl Julius Winters and the celtic word for salt (hall) together.

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The company made a profit of 2.4 billion euro in 2005 ^[1]. In 2005, the company had 1,700 employees worldwide^[2]. The Chairmen of the board of Executive Directors is Reinier Zwitserloot ^[3].

History

The drilling company Wintershall was established in 1894 by the industrialist Heinrich Grimberg and the drilling contractor Carl Julius Winters. Originally the company operated in the mining of potash. In 1930, the coincidental leak of oil in one of the potash pits added oil production to the lsit of company activities. Because of increased oil demand, Wintershall concentrated to the oil production. In 1950s Wintershall started natural gas production. In 1969 Wintershall AG became a subsidiary of BASF. The potash mining was sold to Kali&Salz AG. In 1990s the natural gas production by Wintershall AG expanded. In the autumn 1990 Wintershall started cooperation with Russian gas company Gazprom and concluded a long-term agreement on marketing of Russian natural gas in Germany. In 1993, WINGAS GmbH, the joint venture of Wintershall (50% plus one share) and Gazprom (50% minus one share) was established. In 2005, Wintershall, Gazprom and E.ON Ruhrgas agreed to build the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. In 2006, Wintershall got a stake in Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field.

Fields of activity

The activities of Wintershall cover two ranges: exploration and production of oil and natural gas, and the natural gas trade, which includes also transport and storage.

In exploration and production the emphasis of the activities lies in Western Europe, North Africa, South America and Russia.

References

1. ^ Wintershall-Gruppe: balance to 31 December 2005 (pdf, 300kb)
2. ^ hr-online: property of contacts to Siberia pay themselves out , conditions: August 2006
3. ^ WINTERSHALL: executive committee/supervisory board, conditions: August 2006