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Oil & Gas

Wintershall Dea FY 2020: Strong performance despite difficult environment

Wintershall DEA
Posted: February 24, 2021 at 4:45 pm   /   by   /   comments (0)

In a challenging market environment, Wintershall Dea ended the 2020 fiscal year with strong operational momentum in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Europe’s leading independent gas and oil company increased its production to more than 650,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) – the highest level so far since the company’s merger two years ago.

“2020 was undoubtedly a difficult year for everybody and I’m proud of the way that Wintershall Dea responded to the challenge. We took early and decisive action at the beginning of the pandemic to keep our colleagues safe and to ensure continuity of operations which have allowed the company to end an extremely challenging year in a strong position,” said CEO Mario Mehren at the company’s virtual annual press conference.

Wintershall and DEA merged in May 2019. “We are fully on track with integration and associated cost savings,” Mehren said. The company also managed to cut its underlying production costs, which were already low by industry standards, by a further 8% to €3.5/boe. Wintershall Dea was therefore able to achieve a result in 2020 of €1.6 billion EBITDAX (2019: €2.8 billion), despite a challenging environment with low gas and oil prices.

In the past fiscal year Wintershall Dea, which is active in 13 countries, produced an average of 623,000 boe/d worldwide (2019: 617,000 boe/d), achieving its production target for 2020.

The portfolio for reserves and production continues to be focused on gas (70% gas, 30% oil). “This puts us in a very good, competitive position,” Mehren said.

Wintershall Dea has set itself ambitious climate targets for the future. “We want to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in our upstream activities as early as 2030,” Mehren explained. In addition, the company will reduce the methane intensity of its production to below 0.1% by 2025.

To achieve these targets Wintershall Dea is investing around €400 million in energy efficiency, strict emissions management, and nature-based mitigation solutions over the next ten years. The company is also working on new technologies to decrease emissions generated from producing and using gas and oil. A new department is dedicated to CC[U]S (Carbon Capture [Utilization] and Storage) and hydrogen, as they are such important themes for the future.

Wintershall Dea has already started a hydrogen research cooperation with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), to develop turquoise hydrogen. “Our initiatives demonstrate our clea rcommitment. Because we firmly believe that the energy transition can only succeed with gas. And Wintershall Dea knows gas – both classic natural gas and hydrogen,” Mehren emphasised.

As Europe’s leading independent gas and oil company, Wintershall Dea is making its contribution to affordable energy and climate protection. “Shaping change and seizing opportunity has been part of our corporate DNA for the past 125 years,” Mehren said.

“Looking ahead, 2021 will certainly be a year with continued high levels of uncertainty as well as volatility, and while we remain cautious, we look forward to an exciting year”, said Mehren. The company expects to increase its production in 2021 (620,000 to 640,000 boe/d) and to invest €1.0 to 1.1 billion in production and development (capex), which is slightly below the previous year’s level. Exploration expenditure is expected at €200 to 250 million, a slight increase on 2020 (€154 million).

Here you will find a dedicated webpage for the Annual Press Conference containing our factsheets on selected producing countries as well as background information and images. A recording of the virtual press conference including the Q&A session will be available here from Friday, too.

Click here to go to the Investor Relations area. Here you will find the current Investor Release with a slide set as well as the Annual Report 2020.

About Wintershall Dea

Wintershall Dea is Europe’s leading independent natural gas and oil company with more than 120 years of experience as an operator and project partner along the entire E&P value chain. The company with German roots and headquarters in Kassel and Hamburg explores for and produces gas and oil in 13 countries worldwide in an efficient and responsible manner. With activities in Europe, Russia, Latin America and the MENA region (Middle East & North Africa), Wintershall Dea has a global upstream portfolio and, with its participation in natural gas transport, is also active in midstream business.

Wintershall Dea was formed from the merger of Wintershall Holding GmbH and DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG, in 2019. Today, the company employs around 2,800 people worldwide from over 60 nations.

(Source: Wintershall Dea)