Wintershall

= Global Snapshot =

With an annual production of 130 million barrels oil equivalent (boe), Wintershall is Germany’s largest crude oil and natural gas producer. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF, which specializes in energy. In Europe, the BASF subsidiary trades and sells natural gas.

Wintershall deliberately focuses on selected core regions where the company has regional and technological expertise: Europe, North Africa, South America, Russia and the Caspian Sea region. As of 2011, they also had growing exploration activities in the Middle East. In 2011 the company was producing 113,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day globally, made up of both oil and natural gas.

According to the Petroleum Economist Wintershall is an increasingly important part of BASF's business and analysts highlight its widening geographical presence as one of its main strengths, such as its success i securing exploration license in an offshore field in Qatar in 2008. Since 2000, crude oil and condensate production has declined year-on-year by 14% to 5.8 million tons in 2010, however natural gas production rose by 5% in 2010 to 14.3 billion cubic metres (bcm).

In addition Wintershall is part of a consortium of companies which are collaborating to build the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, scheduled to deliver the first gas to Europe from October 2011. In September 2011 Wintershall announced that it had also agreed with Russia's Gazprom to take a 15% stake in the project company in charge of developing the offshore section of South Stream, a 940 kilometre pipeline project which will run across the Black Sea and connect south-eastern Europe directly with Russia from 2015.

Company Report Highlights
Wintershall's Annual Report for 2010 reported a slight 1.97% rise in operating profits from the 2009 figures, reaching €2.334 billion. Crude oil production was down 14% to 44.1 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day, however gas production was up 4.9% to 89 million boe per day since 2009.

Wintershall also reported that in 2010 they continued to expand activities in core regions, especially in the North Sea and Russia. The report commented that they were involved in six of the twelve biggest oil discoveries made in Norway over the past five years. They were also planning to extend field development at the Amchigaz field in Siberia. Their expansion of natural gas storage facilities progressed well in 2010.

=Official Accreditations and Global Perceptions=

EITI Supporter Status
Wintershall is not a supporting company of the EITI.

UN Global Compact
Wintershall is not a participant in the UN Global Compact.

CSR Review
Wintershall publishes an annual Health, Safety and the Environment Report. The 2010 edition reports the following highlights:


 * Wintershall achieved its target of zero accidents in all activities in 2010, however their contractors suffered three fatal accidents. As a result, they carried out an extensive review of requirements from contractors and developed a catalogue of measures to avoid such accidents in the future.
 * In 2007 Wintershall committed themselves to discontinuing the flaring of associated gas, a goal they hope to achieve by 2012.
 * Wintershall was able to cut greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 by 11% compared with 2009.
 * The use and generation of energy are subject to continuous improvement regarding efficient energy use. Examples are the commissioning of a highly efficient combined heat and power generation (CHP) plant at their Emlichheim location in Germany and the installation of a system to enable use of exhaust heat at a gas turbine generator plant in Nakhla, Libya.
 * With the assistance of Wintershall’s subsidiary WINGAS, a home for blind and visually impaired children in Russia was connected to the public gas network, electricity lines and water pipes were renovated and the buildings were expanded. Picture books and games specially designed for visually impaired and blind children were also donated.
 * Wintershall in 2011 was supporting the International Red Cross(IRC) and Red Crescent in their work in Libya with 100,000 euros of immediate aid. The donations would be used specifically to help people in Libya and Tunisia. In addition, a fundraising campaign for employees was initiated and Wintershall doubled every euro donated.

= Global Operations by Country=

Libya
"Main article: Wintershall Operations in Libya"

=References=