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message this article needs to be updated . please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . december 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message wintershall holding gmbh type subsidiary founded 1894 headquarters kassel germany key people mario mehren net income 2.4 billion euros 2011 number of employees 2 200 2012 parent basf website www.wintershall.de wintershall holding gmbh is germany s largest crude oil and natural gas producer . the company is based in kassel germany . wintershall is a wholly owned subsidiary of basf based in ludwigshafen . the name wintershall is derived from the surname of the enterprise co founder carl julius winter and the old high german word for salt hall together . the company made a profit of 2.4 billion euros in 2011 . 1 in 2012 the company had 2164 employees worldwide . 2 the chairman of the board of executive directors is mario mehren . 3 in september 2015 wintershall s parent group basf traded 100 % of the company s gas distribution and storage business and 50 % of its gas exploration arm wintershall noordzee for 25 % plus one share of gazprom s achimov deposits in western siberia s urengoy oil gas and condensate field in . basf had in 2013 signed a memorandum of understanding on the assets swap but the deal ran into trouble because of us and eu sanctions against russia and the state controlled russian gas producer and exporter over the government in moscow s 2014 annexation of crimea and policy on separatist violence in eastern ukraine . under a binding contract signed on september 4 2015 by gazprom chair alexey miller and his opposite number at basf kurt bock at the russian government s eastern economic forum in vladivostok the german group would invest in and develop blocks 4a and 5a of the achimov gas and gas condensate deposits in the urengoy gas field with gazprom . 4 5 blocks 4a and 5a of the achimov deposits held estimated reserves of about 274 billion cu m of gas and 74 million t of condensate gazprom said . 6 about six months earlier wintershall s chief executive rainer seeleive had told d sseldorf s handelsblatt business daily the crisis between the west and russia escalated at the end of the year and brussels was constantly issuing warnings about being too dependent on russian gas . gazprom started getting doubts about whether it was really wanted in europe as an investor . but of course we were unable to take a major opportunity to expand our cooperation with gazprom even further ... we sat down together and agreed that the underlying conditions especially the political conditions had worsened to the extent that the asset swap no longer made sense ... it will take a long time to normalize relations between germany and russia again ... the key to resolving the crisis lies in ukraine . the first task is to bring peace to the country ... then we have to make sure economic stability takes hold again quickly . we must do this together . only then will we be able to gradually rebuild the trust between russia the ukraine and the west again . 7 contents 1 history 2 fields of activity 3 references 4 external links history edit the drilling company wintershall was established in 1894 by the industrialist heinrich grimberg and the drilling contractor carl julius winter . originally the company worked on the mining of potash . in 1930 the accidental leaking of oil into one of the potash pits added oil production to the list of company activities . because of increased oil demand wintershall concentrated on oil production . directly after world war ii the us senate held some hearings on july 2 1945 concerning the german economy and fiscal operations during the conflict . under chemicals and munitions the testimony said wintershall holding gmbh address kassel ; capital rm 150 000 000 ; business the largest german potash concern and the largest factor in the german potash syndicate the deutsche kalisyndikat after i.g. farben the largest german chemical concern . the owners of wintershall were the august rosterg family g nther quandt and others who held their interest through the holding company gewerke wintershall the principal stockholder in wintershall holding gmbh . interest the dresdner bank was connected with wintershall through interlocking directors in the persons of karl rasche and banker heinrich schmidt . the latter is the head of the wintershall board of directors . 8 at the end of world war ii the libraries of the german army s military geology unit and the german patent office were removed from berlin and secretly stored in the deep wintershall potash mine in heringen . there they were discovered by the us third army in march 1945 and removed to the us . the german patent library was later restored to germany but the military geology materials of maps reports and books often stolen from other countries during the invasions were retained by the us as nazi materiel . 9 most of those maps and books are held in the us geological survey library . during the 1950s wintershall started natural gas production . in 1969 wintershall holding gmbh became a subsidiary of basf which sold the potash mining business to kali & salz ag . during the 1990s natural gas production by wintershall holding gmbh expanded . in the autumn of 1990 wintershall started cooperation with the russian gas company gazprom and concluded a long term agreement on the 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 . in 2008 wintershall successfully acquired norwegian revusenergy asa and has since become one of the biggest operators in the country with a successful exploration record over recent years . in 2012 the company s wintershall noordzee subsidiary unexpectedly struck oil in the dutch north sea previously an area lacking in oil . fields of activity edit 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 edit wintershall gruppe balance to 31 december 2005 pdf 300kb hr online property of contacts to siberia pay themselves out conditions august 2006 wintershall executive committee supervisory board conditions august 2006 nord stream expansion agreed wintershall swapped to gazprom part one vladimir socor eurasia daily monitor jamestown foundation washington 10 september 2015 . retrieved 20 september 2015 . basf and gazprom agree to complete asset swap press release wintershall corporate website kassel 11 september 2015 . retrieved 20 september 2015 . gazprom and wintershall sign agreement on closing asset swap deal press release gazprom corporate website moscow 4 september 2015 . retrieved 20 september 2015 . we manage our projects perfectly handelsblatt d sseldorf 12 march 2015 in english . retrieved 20 september 2015 . united states and bernard m. baruch .1945 . elimination of german resources for war . hearings before a subcommittee of the committee on military affairs united states senate seventy ninth congress first session pursuant to s. res . 107 78th congress and s. res . 146 79th congress authorizing a study of war mobilization problem testimony of hon. bernard m. baruch before the full military affairs committee on control and occupation of germany relations with russia cartels and nationalized industries against free enterprise . washington u.s. g.p.o. july 1945 . page 800 . willig dierk . 2009 . die odyssee des wehrgeologenarchivs als teil der heringen collection versuch einer rekonstruktion der vorg nge von m rz 1945 bis heute . euskirchen amt f r geoinformationswesen der bundeswehr . 31 pages . external links edit wintershall holding gmbh website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wintershall & oldid 694539266 categories natural gas companies of germanyoil companies of germanybasfhidden categories wikipedia introduction cleanup from december 2015all pages needing cleanuparticles covered by wikiproject wikify from december 2015all articles covered by wikiproject wikifyarticles needing additional references from december 2015all articles needing additional referenceswikipedia articles in need of updating from december 2015all wikipedia articles in need of updating navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent 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