Moscow, April 12 - Neftegaz.RU. LetterOne chairman Mikhail Fridman does not expect recent U.S. sanctions against Russian oligarchs will hamper his company’s oil deal with BASF. This is according to the Russian Interfax which cited Fridman as saying L1 and BASF still planned to consolidate oil assets «despite new spiral of sanctions pressure».
LetterOne and Germany’s BASF in December 2017 signed a letter of intent to merge their oil and gas businesses into a joint venture named Wintershall DEA. Closing could be expected in the second half of 2018.
Lord Browne, former BP CEO, and currently the Executive Chairman of L1 Energy and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of DEA said the deal would make Wintershall DEA will be one of Europe’s largest independent E&P Companies.
As for the sanctions, the U.S. Treasury Department last Friday designated Russian oligarchs and officials. Among the notable oligarchs designated in the U.S. Treasury list are energy industry names such as Oleg Deripaska, Suleiman Kerimov, and Kirill Shamalov. Gazprom’s head Alexey Miller is also on the list but as a Designated Russian Government Official.
Additionally, non-U.S. persons could face sanctions for knowingly facilitating significant transactions for or on behalf of the individuals or entities blocked today, the U.S. Treasury said on Friday, April 6.
LetterOne’s Mikhail Fridman is not on this list.
