Wintershall’s head Mario Mehren: “Pricing always seems to be incorrect for the customer”

Anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the USA and EU have relatively little affected the gas industry. Major European energy companies not only continue to work with Gazprom on the same contracts, but also start new projects, such as the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. And one of the participants in this project, German Wintershall, even revived the previously suspended asset swap deal with the Russian monopoly already in the period of the sanctions. Chairman of the Wintershall’s Board Mario Meren tells the Kommersant, why the Germans are not afraid of the critical position of Brussels on Nord Stream-2, but worried about tax reform in Russia, and why the company is not interested in liquefied natural gas.

- A year ago, when you talked about the fate of the assets exchange with Gazprom, you mentioned that the project was suspended because of the deteriorating political situation. But in summer of 2015, you not only resumed the exchange of assets, but also began a major project of Nord Stream-2 with Gazprom. Did you consult on this matter with the German Government? Why did the sudden change happen?

- The completion of the asset swap deal was suspended at the time, since there was a serious uncertainty. If you remember, we were in a spiral of sanctions in November and December, 2014 and faced the threat of an even more serious deterioration in relations between Europe and Russia. So, to be honest, no one could then say what would happen next, and what could be the next level of the sanctions. And it was a risk that we both - as Wintershall, as Gazprom – didn’t want to undertake. Who could say at the moment whether it wouldn’t be forbidden to the parties to have oil and gas assets in Russia or the EU? For this reason, we stopped the deal, not because someone from the Government said to us: "Don’t do it". We were just concerned about the development of events, because it was a question, which we couldn’t control. Even the German Government couldn’t control this process, since the EU imposed the sanctions in general.

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