Wintershall Dea is looking for a way to sue Moscow after the Kremlin expropriated the German company’s business in Russia and wiped €2bn off its accounts.
The energy group last month last month became one of the last western oil and gas producers to announce its exit from Russia following the country’s assault on Ukraine, admitting it had lost control of its wells as well as the bank accounts it shared with its joint venture partner Gazprom.
Chief executive Mario Mehren said on Thursday that Wintershall — one of the main European investors in the suspended Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany — was now investigating “legal claims we might have against the Russian state, or others”.