Wintershall is stepping up its activities in the Arabian Gulf Region: the wholly owned BASF subsidiary has been awarded another exploration licence in Qatar’s territorial waters.

On Wednesday, 24 October 2007 an agreement was signed for Block 3 with the state oil company Qatar Petroleum. With a 40 percent share, the largest German-based oil and gas producer will be the operating company for the exploration activities off the coast of Qatar Arabian Peninsula. The other partners are the Japanese company Cosmo Oil (35%) and Indonesia’s Pertamina (25%).

The agreement was signed by H.E. Mr. Abdullah Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Energy and Industry on behalf of Qatar Government, Dr. Ties Tiessen, Member of the Board of Wintershall Holding AG, Mr. Hideo Matsushita, Senior Managing Director of Cosmo Energy Exploration & Development Ltd. and Mr. Sukussen Soemrinta, Corporate Senior Vice President, Upstream and member of Board of PT Pertamina (Persero). Offshore Block 3 covers an area of about 1,700 square kilometres. 3D seismic surveys as well as exploration and appraisal wells are planned for the area over the next few years with drilling expected to commence in 2009.

“We have been pursuing exploration prospects and the development of reserves off the coast of the emirate of Qatar, which has substantial oil and gas reserves, for some time now”, Bernhard Schmidt, Member of the Board of Wintershall and responsible for Exploration and Development, said explaining the company’s decision to expand its involvement there. “And since we have had very constructive cooperation with the Qatar government and the state oil company Qatar Petroleum in the last few years, we are, of course, very pleased that our activities in Qatar are gaining a second foothold”.