Dana Gas Company has announced that it intends to spend around $50 million in Egypt over the course of 2018, Egypt Oil & Gas reports.

This is a significant increase on the company’s net spend of $27 million in Egypt during 2017.

The company also announced that it will continue to focus on cash preservation as long as Egypt’s payments and the region’s geopolitical risks remain uncertain.

Dana Gas’s output from Egypt rose by 5% during 2017 compared to 2016, reaching 29,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d).

“We continued to focus on cost efficiencies and managed to maintain our low levels of G&A, capex and operational expenditures in support of our capital conservation objective, and this focus will carry on in 2018. Payments from Egypt in H2 2017 were sporadic and disappointing. We remain cautious about the timing and scale of future collections and so the dialogue with the Egyptian Government continues in order for us to get paid what we are contractually owed,” said Patrick Allman-Ward, CEO of Dana Gas.

Earlier in March, Dana Gas announced making $10.4 million during February 2018 after selling 157,200 barrels of condensates from Egypt’s El Wastani Field, Egypt Oil & Gas previously reported. The barrels were sold at an average price of $66.5.