Wintershall, the largest crude oil and natural gas producer in Germany, announced that it’s planning to invest more than $4.10 billion over the next three years in oil and gas exploration.

Wintershall will also allocate 1.5 billion Euros with its sales unit Wingas, a joint venture with Russia’s Gazprom, on gas pipeline network expansions and underground storage facilities.

That came during the company’s annual news conference at the Kassel headquarters, adding that oil and gas exploration had totaled 136 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in 2009, after 130 million in 2008, with a target up to 140 million BOE in 2010.