Sanctioned oligarchs take stake in largest UK oil firm
www.bbc.com
Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman become minority shareholders after Harbour Energy buys German firm.

Two sanctioned Russian oligarchs have become part-owners of the UK’s largest oil producer after it completed a deal to buy a German firm.

LetterOne, the investment company part-owned by oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, now owns nearly 15% of Harbour Energy.

LetterOne itself is not sanctioned, and the two Russians have no contact with the firm and don’t receive any share of its profits.

Harbour Energy is the largest oil and gas producer in UK waters. It has bought most of the oil and gas production assets of a Germany-based firm, Wintershall DEA, from the chemicals giant BASF.

  • MelchiorEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    It also means that there are no gas and oil production firms with an HQ in Germany. The rest of Wintershall DEA holding the Russian assets is mainly used to get insurance money, as Putin stole all those assets. So they might get the money back, but probably not the assets.

    That puts Germany in an intressting position. Being the 9th largest oil consumer and 8th largest gas consumer certainly makes Germany dependent on other countries, but that should change. So bigger and better lobbying against climate change from what is now the third largest economy in the world.