Wintershall DEA, the planned oil and gas joint venture between BASF and LetterOne, will cut almost one out of four jobs once the merger is approved and completed some time during the first half of the year.

Around 1,000 full-time positions - out of a pro-forma total of 4,200 - will be eliminated in a "socially compatible manner," BASF's Wintershall unit said in a statement on Feb. 21.

About 800 of the job cuts will be in Germany and about 200 in Norway, it added.

The new company will seek to boost joint average daily output by around 40%  to 800,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) from 2021-2023, up from a pro-forma 575,000 barrels in 2017.

"This growth is expected to come from both companies' existing portfolio as well as new production regions like Mexico, where DEA has made a recent entry, and Abu Dhabi, where Wintershall entered into a new oil and gas concession," it said.

The output goal was increased from a previous target range of 750,000-800,000 barrels, which was issued in September before the Mexico and Abu Dhabi transactions were agreed.

The new group will achieve synergies of at least 200 million euros per year, from expected production increases and cost reductions, Wintershall added.

BASF has said it would initially hold 67% in Wintershall DEA, with that stake increasing to 72.7% before the combined group's planned stock market listing.

Onshore