The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum announced on Monday that it has signed a new contract to explore for oil and gas in the Nile Delta with the German company Wintershall DIA, with investments more than $43 million. The Minister of Petroleum, Tariq Al-Mulla, has signed the agreement that includes exploring East Damanhur between the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) and the Wintershall DIA.

The signing ceremony also involved raising $11 million in grants to drill 8 wells. This is the first agreement by the company in Egypt after the merger of the Wintershall company and DIA company in 2019, where the company obtained a year ago the concession of gas after a tender for oil and gas.

On Thursday, May 2, 2019, the company issued a joint statement on the completion of the merger procedures between Wintershall and the German company DIA, as the two companies agreed on all points related to the merger since September 2018. After the merger, the company is the largest independent oil company in Europe and will contribute to ensuring its supply of energy.

However, before the merger the company had already been operating in Egypt for more than 40 years, and it has a current stake in six land and sea concessions, according to its official website, and it is also a partner in the main West Nile Delta project with BP.

This brings the total number of agreements focused on oil between the ministry, investors and partners since 2016 to 61, with investments of more than $6 billion to dig 230 wells, according to El-Mulla statements.