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29 Jan, 2026
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BASF compensated by German government for loss of assets in Russia

German chemicals corporation BASF received compensation from the German government in the third and fourth quarters of 2025 for the loss of its assets in Russia, according to German media reports. The company received €229 million in the third quarter, and an as yet undivulged amount in the fourth quarter.

The compensation was made under state guarantees that the German federal government provided to Wintershall in 2016 to cover its investments in Russian oil and gas fields.

BASF confirmed that "Wintershall Dea has received compensation under the federal guarantees, which will be distributed among Wintershall Dea shareholders in the form of dividends." BASF intends to provide further details in late February 2026 when it presents its financial results for the previous year.

The compensation relates to the former Russian assets of Wintershall Dea, which until 2022 was Europe's largest independent oil and gas producer but is now effectively a shell company after its main production assets outside Russia were sold in 2024. BASF still owns 72.7% of Wintershall Dea, with the remaining 27.3% belonging to the LetterOne holding company, founded by Russian entrepreneurs Mikhail Fridman, Peter Aven and Alexei Kuzmichev.

Wintershall Dea had stakes in three joint ventures (JVs) with Gazprom in Yamal. In addition, the company was one of the investors in Nord Stream 2 (15.5%). Under a December 2023 Russian presidential decree, the rights and obligations of those JVs were assigned to companies created by the Russian government. Gazprom received shares in those companies proportional to its interests in the JVs, and shares proportional to the shareholdings of foreign companies were transferred to the newly created LLCs. These, in turn, were acquired by SOGAZ and Gas Technologies. The sale proceeds were transferred to special Type "C" accounts in the name of the previous foreign shareholders.

Wintershall Dea claimed that the assets were expropriated and in 2024 initiated two arbitration proceedings against the Russian Federation. In September 2025, the Moscow Arbitrazh (Commercial) Court ruled in favour of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, which sued Wintershall Dea to prohibit it from continuing international arbitration proceedings against Russia. After the company ignored the court's order to prohibit the proceedings, the Moscow court ruled that €7.5 billion could be recovered jointly from Wintershall Dea, the law firm Aurelius Cotta and two international arbitrators.

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