BERLIN/KASSEL (dpa-AFX) - The federally owned energy company Sefe wants to take over the gas network operator Wiga completely. Sefe is to become the sole shareholder and take over 50.02 percent of the shares of the previous joint venture partner Wintershall Dea AG, the company announced on Tuesday. BASF subsidiary Wintershall Dea confirmed the plans. According to a statement, the company concluded a corresponding agreement with Sefe.

Wiga owns the gas network operators Gascade and Nel, which operate networks in Germany with a total length of around 4150 kilometers. The networks play a key role in European energy security and the green energy transition, it said.

The German government is planning to build a hydrogen core network, and Wiga's networks could play an important role in this. Hydrogen is a beacon of hope for the energy transition, which is intended to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in industry and other sectors.

With Sefe as the sole shareholder of Wiga, it would be ensured that Gascade would be able to convert the existing high-performance infrastructure to hydrogen in the future and thus drive forward the green energy transition, explained Sefe CEO Egbert Laege.

Sefe, formerly known as Gazprom Germania, was a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned company Gazprom and was nationalized as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the energy crisis.

Sefe also announced that the German government had applied for an amendment to the original approval for the recapitalization of the company with regard to the acquisition ban applicable there. The European Commission had accepted this corresponding approval under state aid law. The acquisition of the shares in Wiga is still subject to merger control approval by the Commission. According to Wintershall Dea, the transaction is expected to be completed in summer 2024.

Wintershall Dea is a subsidiary of the chemical group BASF, which intends to sell it to the British oil company Harbour Energy. BASF CFO Dirk Elvermann told the news agencies dpa-AFX and dpa in February that Wintershall Dea was continuing preparations for the sale of its stake in Wiga. The pipelines were originally used to distribute Russian gas in Germany, Elvermann said. Now they are being used to land liquefied natural gas from other countries, such as the USA.

- possibly also for hydrogen in the future./hoe/DP/jha