FSUOGM: Wintershall Dea fields in Russia could be indirectly supplying fuel for Ukraine war

Oil and gas fields in Western Siberia jointly controlled by Russia’s Gazprom and Germany’s Wintershall Dea could be supplying fuel used in the war in Ukraine, according to an investigation by RFE/RL and UK anti-corruption group Global Witness released last week. The revelations could ratchet up pressure on Wintershall Dea to dump the assets, which it will be difficult for the company to obtain any proceeds from, given moves by Moscow to nationalise other operations held by foreign energy companies, including US major ExxonMobil.

Rail freight data supplied to Global Witness by a European research group, the Anti-Corruption Data Collective, showed that gas condensate sourced from Wintershall Dea’s fields in Western Siberia continued to be delivered to a refinery in Russia’s central Bashkortostan region. That refinery produces diesel fuel to several Russian military and security agencies.

The investigation does not provide conclusive evidence that specific barrels of diesel used by these agencies from the refineries were produced from Wintershall Dea’s condensate. But buyers of the plant’s diesel include a unit of the Federal Protection Service (FSO) that is responsible for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s personal security, and a unit of the National Guard that has had at least one member killed in Ukraine.

This is not the first time that the Achimov layer fields that Wintershall Dea works out have been linked to fuel supplies to the Russian military. Germany’s Der Spiegel reported last November that the company’s gas condensate may have been refined into fuel used by Russian Air Force jets. The company refuted the allegations and said the newspaper had failed to provide “concrete” evidence for the claims.

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