US Apache will invest $908.9m in drilling 97 new wells in Egypt’s Western Desert during fiscal year 2016/2017.  The company will drill 74 development wells with investments of $ 552.5m, in addition to 23 exploratory wells at a cost of $346.4m, reported Daily News Egypt.

Khalda Petroleum, Apache’s joint venture in Egypt,  will allocate three rigs for drilling a number of exploratory wells during the first half of 2017 in order to increase oil and gas production rates and offset the natural decline of fields’ productivity. The company aims to boost production to more than 146,000b/d of oil and 810mcf/d of gas.

Khalda Petroleum’s CEO, Mohamed Abdel Azim, stated that the company recently agreed with a foreign partner to increase investments during the current fiscal year. The proposed plan will be reviewed by Apache in January 2017 in order to decide on the estimated increase in investments and to set the plan for the next fiscal year.

In related news, Apache was bidding for an exploration license in Egypt’s Western Desert concession through Khalda Petroleum. The bid was for the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation’s (EGPC) May tender for the exploration in 11 sediment basin sectors. The tender included 5 sediment basin sectors in the Gulf of Suez, and 6 sediment basin sectors in the Western Desert.