"Gazprom" and BASF to wait until winter.

BASF officially acknowledged that tt does not have time to close the deal on exchange of assets with "Gazprom" this summer and the dates are shifted to the end of the year. The company assured that this is a technical issue: the creation of the new structures included in the deal turned out to be longer than BASF expected. The market confirms that the EU sanctions have not affected the project as yet, but may still affect it in the future.

German BASF announced that the deadline for closing the asset swap deal with "Gazprom" is scheduled for mid-year shifts to the autumn. As the company explained "The Kommersant", both sides "routinely" work on the restructuring and preparing of the assets but the complicated legal process of deconcentration – the creation of the new companies in Russia, Germany and the Netherlands – lasts longer than it was originally anticipated. "Gazprom" does not comment on the situation, but the monopoly didn’t mention the exact timing of the transaction completion, limiting it to the end of 2014. "The Kommersant" source in the industry assures that the delay is not related to the U.S. and EU sanctions against Russia, at least at this stage. But he did not excluded that the difficulties may arise in the future if the access to finance is completely closed, the importation of the equipment or the access to technology is prohibited.