OREANDA-NEWS. Wintershall and DEA (Deutsche Erdoel AG) of Mikhail Friedman completed the merger procedure, which resulted in Wintershall DEA being considered the largest independent gas and oil producer in Europe, according to a joint company in the Russian media. United Wintershall DEA has become the largest oil and gas company in Europe. However, in terms of production, it is inferior to Russian Gazprom Neft and Rosneft.

Some time ago, the companies received all permissions to merge, except for one - from Mexico, Wintershall CEO Mario Meren, who now headed the joint company Wintershall DEA, said in March. “ Now we got all the necessary permissions, the merger process is over,” said RBC on Thursday, May 2, a Wintershall DEA representative.

The German petrochemical concern BASF, the owner of Wintershall, received 67% of Wintershall DEA, and the LetterOne of Mikhail Friedman, Hermann Khan and Alexey Kuzmichyov, controlling DEA, the remaining 33%. “We have become a European champion and are making an important contribution to the energy security of Europe,” said Meren, Chairman of the Board of Wintershall DEA. Wintershell DEA's initial public offering is scheduled for the second half of 2020.

Production of the combined company in 2018 amounted to 215 million barrels of oil equivalent. This corresponds to approximately 30 million tons, which is two times less than the level of production of the third largest Russian oil company Gazprom Neft (it produced about 60 million tons last year) and nine and a half times less than Rosneft (respectively 285.5 million t). Taking into account the share in joint ventures, the production of Gazprom Neft in 2018 amounted to 92.9 million tons of oil equivalent, or 688.4 million barrels. However, unlike these companies, Wintershall DEA produces more gas than oil.