Wintershall Dea is in search of a method to sue Moscow after the Kremlin expropriated the German firm’s enterprise in Russia and wiped €2bn off its accounts.

The vitality group final month final month turned one of many final western oil and gasoline producers to announce its exit from Russia following the nation’s assault on Ukraine, admitting it had misplaced management of its wells in addition to the financial institution accounts it shared with its three way partnership companion Gazprom.

Chief government Mario Mehren stated on Thursday that Wintershall — one of many principal European buyers within the suspended Nord Stream 2 gasoline pipeline between Russia and Germany — was now investigating “authorized claims we’d have in opposition to the Russian state, or others”.

He added that the corporate “will strive the whole lot that might be potential . . . and can execute it with out making large bulletins”.

Wintershall, which is majority owned by BASF, revealed on Thursday that it had swung to a internet lack of €4.8bn in 2022 regardless of a yr of unprecedentedly excessive gasoline costs due to a non-cash impairment of €7bn associated to the lack of its Russian enterprise.

Mehren was nonetheless assured that the corporate remained “sturdy and steady”, and spoke about plans to increase its enterprise in Mexico, Norway and north Africa.

Chief monetary officer Paul Smith stated Wintershall “had hoped, on the finish of the conflict and as soon as restrictions had been lifted”, that the money produced from its continued operations in Russia could be “dividended again” to shareholders, however that this was “not the case”.

Mehren stated Wintershall additionally hoped to claw again a few of its losses in Russia underneath the German authorities’s federal funding assure, which some analysts have estimated might be price €2bn to €2.5bn.

The chief government, who days earlier than the invasion of Ukraine had nonetheless been advocating for nearer ties with Russia, declined to touch upon whether or not Wintershall may attempt to promote its Russian enterprise to the nation’s authorities or Gazprom.

“At this time limit, we aren’t disclosing particulars on our plans of how precisely we are going to realise our exit from Russia,” he stated.

The corporate, which human rights teams have claimed has provided Gazprom with merchandise that can be utilized to make gas for Russian army jets, stated it aimed to finish its exit this yr.

Nevertheless, Mehren cautioned that “how lengthy that is going to take in the long run will even not solely rely upon us, it can additionally rely upon others”.