Germany`s leading chemical player BASF is acquiring 49 per cent of the shares in the planned Nordlicht 1 and 2 offshore wind farms from the Swedish energy company Vattenfall. This means that in future BASF will own almost half of the electricity produced there, which will be used to supply its own production sites in Europe, particularly in Ludwigshafen.

This move isn`t a surprise as BASF has been heavily dependent on Russian gas and other fossil fuels. As the firm is de-risking its energy supply, this acquisition is both a strategic move in terms of geo-political developments as well as the need to move to clean energy from a commercial point of view.