Wintershall today announced Hugo Dijkgraaf as new Managing Director of its Norwegian subsidiary. Dijkgraaf (42) will take on the position in November this year, pending the appointment by the Wintershall Norge supervisory board. Dijkgraaf has been with Wintershall since 2000 and currently holds the position of Vice President and Project Director of the Maria development, the company’s flagship development in Norway.
“I am proud to take over from Bernd Schrimpf and I look forward to continue working with all our talented people. With the solid foundation laid over more than 10 years in Norway, I firmly believe that we will successfully deliver our development projects Maria and Skarfjell and continue as an active and profitable player on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in all exploration, development and production stages,” says Dijkgraaf.
Over the past 17 years, Dijkgraaf, a Dutch citizen, has held various technical and managerial positions in Germany’s largest internationally active oil and gas producer. He holds a Master’s Degree in petroleum engineering and has worked across a broad range of disciplines including subsurface, strategic planning, development and operations, including offshore platform management. He gained extensive international experience in Wintershall’s worldwide core regions: Germany, the Netherlands, Argentina, Libya and Norway. Over the last 5 years he has been responsible for the development of the Maria field, which is managed out of the Stavanger office.
Dijkgraaf succeeds Bernd Schrimpf, who has managed the company since 2010 and who will retire. Until his successor takes over, Schrimpf will continue as Managing Director. “It’s been an amazing journey. When I came to Stavanger I didn’t foresee such a rapid development from pure exploration to a full-scale oil and gas company, and in fact one of the largest producers on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The whole organization has contributed to this success,” says Schrimpf.
Major player on the NCS
Wintershall has pursued a strong growth course in Norway since its office opening in Stavanger in 2009. From an initial daily production of 3,000 barrels of oil equivalent to currently more than 80,000 boe, the company developed into one of Norway’s most important oil and gas producers. Focusing on an active exploration strategy and with the goal of a long-term growth path in Norway, the company continuously strives to expand its license portfolio. Applying for new licenses in the current APA 2017 licensing round is part of this company policy. Acting as operator for the fields Brage and Vega Wintershall furthermore plans to strengthen its operated production with Maria and Skarfjell – two projects Wintershall is driving from exploration over to field development and production.
Wintershall Holding GmbH, based in Kassel, Germany, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BASF in Ludwigshafen. The company has been active in the extraction of natural resources for 120 years, and in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas for over 85 years. Wintershall focuses on selected core regions where the company has built up a high level of regional and technological expertise. These are Europe, Russia, North Africa, South America, and increasingly the Middle East region. The company wants to expand its business further with exploration and production, selected partnerships, innovation and technological competence. Wintershall employs about 2.000 staff worldwide from 50 nations and is now Germany’s largest, internationally active crude oil and natural gas producer.