BASF and Gazprom celebrate 20-year partnership
BASF and its oil and gas subsidiary Wintershall commemorated 20 years of German-Russian economic history together with Gazprom at an anniversary event in Berlin. The companies laid the foundations for their cooperation in fall 1990 with a long-term agreement to market Russian natural gas in Germany.
Together with more than 200 guests, Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE, and Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of OAO Gazprom, celebrated the anniversary of the successful and pioneering economic cooperation.
Today, the partnership between the world’s leading chemical company and the world’s largest producer of natural gas extends from the exploration and production of natural gas in West Siberia to transportation through the Nord Stream pipeline and the sale of the natural gas in Germany and Europe by the jointly owned natural gas trading company WINGAS.
The German-Russian cooperation was unprecedented in the gas industry in 1990. What began with a shared declaration of intent on cooperation in the gas sector shortly before the reunification of the two German states has now grown into a solid and equal partnership. “From today’s perspective, the cooperation represents a historic step towards securing Europe’s energy supply,” said BASF Chairman Hambrecht. “When Gazprom and BASF signed the first agreements at the beginning of the 1990s, hardly anyone could have imagined how successful this partnership would become. Today we are very proud of what we have accomplished and can look to the future with optimism. After all, there is still a great deal we intend to achieve together,” Hambrecht continued.
“The two decades of partnership between Gazprom and Wintershall exemplify the success of cooperating in business. Over the years we have solved more than one difficult task: we have begun developing the difficult-to-access Achimov deposit of the Urengoy reservoir and we are building the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which is important for the European market,” said Gazprom Chairman Alexey Miller. “We now work along the entire value creation chain – from production through to sales. Our relationship is based on mutual trust and appreciation. Our employees and business partners are increasingly becoming good friends. I firmly believe that new success stories lie ahead of us, and just as many outstanding and interesting projects,” Miller explained.
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