FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Wintershall Dea on Tuesday said it will cut some 500 or roughly a quarter of its staff and reduce its management board in a separation of its business from Russia on which it historically had relied on for half of its hydrocarbons production.
“We have adjusted our corporate strategy in line with the changing energy sector and our exit from Russia and we are now refocusing our organisational structure accordingly,” said chief executive Mario Mehren in a statement.
The company, which majority shareholder BASF is seeking to exit, aims for 200 million euros ($214.44 million) of annual cost savings, it said.
Some 300 of the 500 jobs in question are in Germany, but the shedding of jobs will be carried out in a socially responsible way, the statement said.
The management board will in future consist of Mehren, Chief Operating Officer Dawn Summers and CFO Paul Smith, with chief technology officer Hugo Dijkgraaf leaving at the end of November.
The board member for Russia, Thilo Wielend, already left earlier in 2023.
($1 = 0.9327 euros)
(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Friederike Heine)
