Apache Corp on Tuesday said it plans to emphasise its international growth this year and will attempt to secure a foothold in Chile, which is opening up a round of bidding for offshore properties.
Apache President and Chief Executive G. Steven Farris told analysts at the Howard Weil Energy Conference that less than 40 percent of the independent oil and gas company's production was in the United States.
Due to rising costs and the fact that US fields are mature, Apache will shift about $500 million of its exploration and development budget from North America to abroad, he said. Apache has set a preliminary exploration and production budget of about $4.1 billion for this year.
"Our 2007 exploration focus in 2007 will be in the growth areas of Egypt, Australia and Canada," Farris said as he announced a new natural gas find in the north African country. Houston-based Apache - which also has operations in the North Sea and Argentina - is projecting to grow its total production by 6 percent to 10 percent in 2007, Farris added.
Production costs for oil and gas wells in the United States and Canada have risen sharply in the past three years as producers have ramped up operations to take advantage of high energy prices. Farris told Reuters that his company was eyeing opportunities in Chile, which soon plans to open a round of bidding for offshore properties.
"We are interested in Chile; it's certainly under-explored," Farris said when asked whether his company was interested in bidding. "The other thing is that it would fit like a glove with our stuff in the Austral Basin down there," in southern Argentina, he added.
"We would like to do something with them (Chile) that makes sense to them and makes sense to us ... We are keenly interested in the onshore stuff," he said. "We have really been trying to make the case to the Chileans that we can explore for and try to find some oil and gas," Farris told Reuters.
In a separate statement, Apache said that the Jade-1X well has discovered natural gas on the company's Matruh Concession in Egypt's Western Desert. The well tested 25.6 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Jurassic Upper Safa member of the Khatatba formation, Farris said in the statement.
"Jade-1X is an important discovery for Apache in that it extends the known productive limits of the Jurassic gas fairway almost 12 miles south-west of existing Jurassic production," Farris said.
"This discovery also suggests significant reserve potential exists in multiple Alam El Bueib (AEB) reservoir objectives. We plan five additional Jurassic and two AEB exploratory wells on the concession this year," he added. The company operates the Matruh Concession with a 100 percent contractor interest. The concession comprises more than a quarter of a million acres.
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