The upstream investment arm of Dubai state-owned ENOC, Dragon Oil, plans to invest $500 million in oil and gas assets next year, chief executive Ali Rashid al-Jarwan told Reuters.

Dragon Oil aims to boost its production to 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) by 2025, and is looking to new opportunities in Turkmenistan, North Africa, and Iraq, al-Jarwan added.

“We are trying to improve our profitability, our efficiency and our sustainability and for that purpose we are continuously looking for opportunities to improve our portfolio,” he stated, “we are a cash positive company”.

The company’s main international asset is in Turkmenistan’s Cheleken field, where it produces nearly 90,000 barrels per day (b/d), and it also has exploration assets in Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt.

The company has started production from the Faihaa-1 well in Iraq’s southern Basra region.  In Algeria, it is currently undertaking exploration activities for commercial oil and gas operations slated to begin after 2019.

“We have a program of acquisition to supplement our growth strategy, because our strategy indicates that we have to go to 300,000 boe/d by 2025,” he said. “We are looking at Africa mainly, especially North Africa.”