Wintershall reports surge in Q3 earnings

German gas supplier Wintershall Dea enjoyed a 146% year-on-year increase in core earnings in the third quarter on the back of higher gas prices, the company reported on October 26.

The company booked €983mn ($1.14bn) in Ebitdax for the three-month period, versus €399mn in the third quarter of 2020. It posted an adjusted net income of €234mn, compared with €63mn a year earlier.

Free cash flow expanded by more than three and a half times to €405mn, while net debt shrank 42% to €3.39bn. The company's net debt to Ebitda ratio decreased to 1.2 from 3.4 a year before.

"Q3 2021 was an exceptional quarter underpinned by a constructive commodity price environment, and in particular by European gas prices which are expected to stay high through the winter," Wintershall Dea CEO Mario Mehren said in a statement. "Our financial performance continues to benefit from the external environment, but also from our continuing robust operations."

Production averaged 588,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day, down 3% year on year, with Wintershall Dea noting that output was affected by a fire at a third-party gas and condensate treatment plant in Russia. A fire broke out at Gazprom's processing facility in Urengoi, west Siberia, in early August, knocking out some of its capacity.