Egypt General Petroleum, which is run by the country’s Ministry of Petroleum, awarded the development areas in two blocks during a bid round, according to an Apex statement.

Both exploration areas are in the Abu Gharadig Basin in Egypt’s Western Desert, which is considered a highly productive region.

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Apex plans to invest $27.4 million in first-phase exploration, consisting of obtaining three-dimensional seismic data and drilling six exploration wells.

In a statement, Apex founder and CEO Roger Plank said the development area helps Apex establish a presence in Egypt’s “prolific” Western Desert.

“With 1.7 million acres now in hand, this is an important step in our mission to build an oil and gas business of scale in Egypt and we are eager to start investing in the considerable potential of these blocks,” Plank said.

Based in Houston and Cairo, newly formed Apex announced that it would pursue Middle Eastern and North African developments but that Egypt was the company’s top investment priority.