German chemical giant BASF plans to intensify its deep cooperation with Russia's Gazprom in Europe and internationally, the company's chief executive Kurt Bock said Friday.
"Russia is important, very important for us," Bock said at BASF's annual shareholders meeting in Mannheim, Rhine River sister city of Ludwigshafen, the company's headquarters.
BASF had no interest in sanctions against Russia in the Ukranian crisis, noting that the company had German government guarantees covering over 90% of its oil and gas investments in Russia. "I assume we won't have to use them," Bock said.
The more than $1.4-billion investments made by BASF in Russia via its oil and gas subsidiary Wintershall are largely in participation ventures in western Siberian blocks. These account for roughly a third of the company's annual total worldwide output of about 150 billion barrels of oil equivalent expected this year.
At the meeting, BASF also announced that it was moving ahead with U.S. expansion plans for a new multi-billion dollar propylene plant in the Gulf region.
The plan for that complex resulted from the much lower cost of natural gas in the US than in Europe, making it impractical to supply the needs for its US chemical operations from its German headquarters facilities, Bock said.
