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Wintershall Holding GmbH, based in Kassel, was Germany's largest crude oil and natural gas producer. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF. The company was active in oil and gas exploration and production with operations in Europe, North Africa, South America as well as the Middle East region. The withdrawal from Russia, a key production area for the company, was announced in 2023. Wintershall employed more than 2,000 people worldwide. In the 2018 financial year the company produced around 171 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of oil and gas. Revenues amounted to 4.09 billion euros.
On 1 May 2019, Wintershall merged with DEA AG to form Wintershall Dea. BASF holds 67% of the shares in the joint venture.
Ground was first broken on 23 April 1900 to drill the Grimberg shaft at Widdershausen, and the first Wintershall potash works were built in Heringen. Wintershall drilled further shafts in the Werra potash fields, building and acquiring other works in the region. From 1895 to 1913, the potash shafts drilled in the Werra numbered seven in Hesse and 21 in Thuringia.
In 1930, crude oil production was added to Wintershall's line of work when a leakage of crude oil into one of the potash shafts in Völkenrode turned out to be a promising prospect for Wintershall. The increasing motorization as well as the subsequent gathering of munitions for the war meant that crude oil was very much in demand. Hence, from then on Wintershall concentrated on developing crude oil resources.Klag, N.D.: "Die Liberalisierung des Gasmarktes in Deutschland" (the liberalisation of the gas market in Germany), Tectum Verlag DE, 2003, p.172.
Rosterg maintained close ties with the Nazi Party elite and met the commander of the Schutzstaffel, Heinrich Himmler, personally on several occasions. The American military government considered Rosterg, as a member of “Himmler’s circle”, to be a “captain of industry under the National Socialist regime”. Under his management, Wintershall was fully integrated in the NS system and acted in accordance with its goals.
In the 1930s, Wintershall took over Naphthaindustrie und Tankanlagen AG (NITAG), renaming it NITAG Deutsche Treibstoffe AG in 1938. NITAG had already been "Aryanization" by the time it was taken over, with the Jewish family Kahan no longer holding any shares in the company from 1932 at the latest. As a result, NITAG became the main sales subsidiary for mineral oil products alongside Mihag, Wiesöl and Wintershall Mineralöl GmbH.
Forced labourers were increasingly used during World War II. 1360 internees from the Buchenwald concentration camp had to work at Wintershall's Lützkendorf plant.
In 1951, Wintershall made its first natural gas discovery in northern Germany. In 1952, Wintershall and DEA AG acquired the majority in Deutsche Gasolin AG in connection with the construction of the Emsland oil refinery. In 1956, Wintershall's sales subsidiary NITAG was merged with Gasolin AG to create Deutsche Gasolin Nitag AG, after which Wintershall became a co-owner of Aral AG by contributing its shares in NITAG and Gasolin.
In 1965, Wintershall took over Preussag's shares in the Buggingen potash mine.
In 1987, Wintershall began operating the Mittelplate drilling platform on the edge of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park along with DEA in a 50:50 joint venture. More than 35 million tonnes of crude oil have been produced to date by the relatively small production island, which measures just . The Mittelplate offshore field contributes 55% to the German oil production.
Wingas was founded in 1993 as a joint venture between Wintershall and Gazprom. European unbundling regulations meant that network operation and storage had to be split from natural gas trading and transferred to separate companies. Consequently, the new Wingas (natural gas trading only) and Wingas Transport were formed in 2010. As a result of an asset swap between BASF and Gazprom, the new Wingas and hence Wintershall's natural gas trading activities were fully transferred to Russian ownership in 2015. Alongside that move, the remaining company Wingas Transport was renamed Gascade in 2012. Gascade is part of the joint venture WIGA Transport Beteiligungs-GmbH & Co. KG (WIGA) between Wintershall Dea and Gazprom.
In 2010 the Wintershall Holding AG was transformed into Wintershall Holding GmbH.
Wintershall participated in the construction of Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. was the company's response to rising demand for natural gas and falling production in Europe. Together with Gazprom and E.ON Ruhrgas, 55 billion cubic meters of transport capacities were generated in 2011 with the Baltic Sea pipeline. Wintershall has a 15.5 percent share in the pipeline.De Brabandere, E.; Gazzini, T.: "Foreign Investment in the Energy Sector: Balancing Private and Public Interests", Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 6 Jun 2014, p.106.
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