Wintershall Dea hits back at asset seizure, says Russia unpredictable

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Wintershall Dea on Wednesday said Russian President Vladimir Putin's decree seizing its Russia assets shows once again that Russia has become unreliable and unpredictable.

"The presidential decree is further confirmation: Russia is no longer a reliable economic partner and is unpredictable - in every respect," said a spokesperson in a written reply to an enquiry by Reuters.

Decrees signed by Putin on Tuesday showed that Wintershall Dea and Austria's OMV are to formally lose their shares in gas extraction projects.

The company said it had received information about the move from the media and was in the process of analysing the situation more closely.

Wintershall Dea, an international oil and gas producer, was cut off from its Russian earnings, which had previously accounted for half its production, in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.

It financially deconsolidated the assets, including Siberian gas fields Yuzhno Russkoye and Achimov, which it co-owns.

Majority shareholder BASF, which took writedowns after earlier Russian decrees cut the price at which Wintershall Dea supplied its Kremlin-controlled partner Gazprom, is seeking to exit Wintershall Dea.

Wintershall Dea Chief Executive Mario Mehren in July ruled out selling the assets to Wintershall Dea minority shareholder Mikhail Fridman, owner of the investment firm LetterOne, because he is subject to Western sanctions.

Mehren has said his firm is looking into ways to recover at least some of the damages incurred, including arbitration and legal claims.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Miranda Murray)