Lord Browne to lead RWE Dea’s supervisory board
A new supervisory board was appointed at the first general meeting of RWE Dea shareholders. The chairman of the DEA supervisory board is now Lord John Browne.
"In DEA, we have acquired a company with a long history of technical and managerial excellence, a track record of imaginative thinking, an international outlook and great potential," said Lord Browne, the recently appointed executive chairman of LetterOne Energy and former CEO of BP, the British energy group, from 1995 until 2007. "DEA fits perfectly into our investment strategy."
Members of the supervisory board include, among others, Mikhail Fridman, chairman of the board of directors of LetterOne Holdings S.A., and German Khan, one of the original founders of LetterOne Holdings S.A. Thomas Rappuhn, CEO of Dea, has been responsible for running the company since 2010. As the COO, Dirk Warzecha is responsible for the operative activities. The CFO is Dr. Johannes Karlisch.
The shareholders general meeting also decided to change the company name RWE Dea AG back to DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG. After its foundation as Deutsche Tiefbohr-Actiengesellschaft in 1899, the company operated from 1911 to 1970 under the name of Deutsche Erdoel AG. Even after the latest change of owners, DEA remains a German company. The names of the international subsidiaries will be adapted accordingly.
The first business priorities, such as the review of the corporate strategy, are currently in preparation. Despite the notable drop in the prices of crude oil and natural gas, the company plans to lay the foundations for further growth. Worldwide, oil and gas will remain the most important energy sources in the next decades. According to independent forecasts, the global energy requirement will increase 40% until 2035.
"The realignment of DEA from a group subsidiary to an independent oil and gas company offers many opportunities," said Thomas Rappuhn, DEA's CEO.
DEA, with a staff force of 1,440 employees, is currently active in 17 countries and has stakes in production facilities and concessions in Germany, the UK, Norway, Denmark, Egypt and Algeria, and currently holds exploration concessions in Ireland, Libya, Poland, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and Turkmenistan. In Germany, DEA also operates large subsurface storage facilities for natural gas.
LetterOne is a private investment fund headquartered in Luxembourg; it was established in 2013. The fund deploys its financial resources, as well as its management and investment expertise, to make value-driven investments in the energy and telecommunications sector through its subsidiaries L1 Energy und LetterOne Telecom. Its assets originate from the successful investment and operational track record of its founding shareholders, including the sale of the integrated oil and gas company TNK-BP.
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