New oil and gas company establishes Houston office

A newly formed energy company has established a Houston office.

Apex International Energy, an oil and gas exploration firm that focuses on developing assets in Egypt, announced Tuesday it will launch investments in drilling and production operations from its offices in Houston and Cairo -- which Apex President and Chief Operating Officer Thomas Maher said are "two of the most important cities in the global oil and gas industry."

The company could spread into other Middle Eastern and North African countries as development continues.

"We have made Egypt our top priority place to invest and are actively involved in the current concession bidding round and evaluating a number of interesting acquisition opportunities," Apex founder and CEO Roger Plank said in a statement. "We are pleased with the level of interest that has been shown in Apex to date and look forward to building a substantial E&P (exploration and production) business."

Apex is backed by global private equity firm Warburg Pincus.