The Russian energy company is giving up its German subsidiary.
(Photo: GAZPROM Germania GmbH)
Berlin, Dusseldorf The Russian gas giant Gazprom says it is giving up its German subsidiary Gazprom Germania. The group announced on Friday that it would withdraw from Gazprom Germania GmbH and its holdings, including Gazprom Marketing & Trading. The company did not provide any further details. Gazprom Germania has not yet received a statement.
The Russian parent company was previously the sole owner. Gazprom Germania’s holdings also include subsidiaries in Switzerland and the Czech Republic.
Gazprom Germania’s business areas are trading, transport and storage of natural gas. It is unclear whether the announcement will have any consequences for natural gas deliveries from Russia to Germany.
The background to Gazprom’s move is still unclear. But as the Handelsblatt had already reported on Thursday, the Federal Ministry of Economics is already internally running through a nationalization up to and including an expropriation of the German subsidiaries of the Russian energy companies Gazprom and Rosneft.
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In this way, the federal government wants to prevent a massive impairment of the energy supply, especially in eastern Germany, in the event of difficulties for the companies. Several government representatives had confirmed this to the Handelsblatt. The danger of a “technical bankruptcy” cannot be dismissed out of hand, said an insider.
Gazprom Germania is not itself affected by the sanctions against Russia, but has had significant problems with new contracts and deals in Germany since the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. On the one hand, banks are distancing themselves from Russian subsidiaries. Insiders report that only a few banks are willing to work for Rosneft Germania.
On the other hand, Gazprom Germania can hardly find any contractual partners. Gas customers had already decided at the beginning of March to no longer do business with suppliers such as the Gazprom Germania subsidiary Wingas, as the Handelsblatt reported. At the same time, Wingas initially stopped offering new long-term transactions for gas supplies.
Major gas storage and refinery operators
The Bloomberg news agency reported again this Friday that customers are avoiding doing business with Wingas. The federal government is therefore examining the implications that an insolvency of the company would have.
If the two companies were to collapse, this would have a massive impact on the energy supply. Wingas supplies around 20 percent of the German gas market. Gazprom Germania operates large gas storage facilities. As a refinery operator, Rosneft Germany is a key player in the petrol, diesel and kerosene markets. Both companies are currently irreplaceable on the German energy market. A possible rescue operation would now be easier to carry out after the mother split off.
Should the state actually take a stake in the companies, they could slip under the Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF). To do this, however, the WSF would first have to be opened up to “economically relevant companies”, as proposed by Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens).
With agency material
More: Energy supply threatened: Habeck plays through the rescue of Russian subsidiaries.
