Shortly before Christmas, BASF and Gazprom finalized a previously announced asset swap that will give the German chemical giant a bigger share of Russian gas exploration rights in exchange for its trading activities in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and The Netherlands. The assets are said to be of equal value.

Under the deal, BASF's wholly owned subsidiary Wintershall will have joint development rights with the Russian gas conglomerate in two additional blocks of the Achimov formation of the Urengoi natural gas and condensate field in western Siberia and it additionally will receive 25% plus one share of blocks IV and V.

According to the development plan confirmed by Russian mining authorities, blocks IV and V have total hydrocarbon resources of 274 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 74 million cbm of condensate, equivalent to 2.4 billion barrels of oil. BASF said an annual plateau production of at least 8 billion cbm of natural gas can be expected from the two blocks. Production is set to begin in 2016.

The assets the world's largest chemical producer is relinquishing will give Gazprom exploration rights in the southern North Sea off the shores of The Netherlands, Scotland and Denmark. For BASF, the activities last represented sales of €10 billion and roughly €500m in annual EBITDA.

BASF chief Kurt Bock said the swap "will allow the group to focus on profitable growth at the source in our targeted oil and gas-rich regions." Since 2000, he said Wintershall's output of natural gas increased from 80 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) to 126 million boe in 2012 and is planned to rise to "at least" 160 million boe from Russia and the northern North Sea by 2015.