Apache Corporation has announced a major oil discovery in Texas. The US company said it has assembled “contiguous parcels of more than 300,000 acres for $1,300 an acre” in the field it calls Alpine High, most of which is in Reeves County, Texas.

Analysts said that the price is “a bargain” compared to deals done for as much as $30,000 an acre in other parts of Texas.

Improved technologies and efficiencies will allow Apache to exploit the area, an overlooked part of the otherwise expansive Permian Basin, the top US oil-field with multiple layers of oil-bearing rock.

To start developing the field, Apache raised its 2016 development budget to $2 billion (from $1.8 billion), making it one of a number of leading producers to raise spending this year.

Apache estimates that its ‘new acreage’ holds about 75 trillion ft³ of ‘mostly wet’ gas and three billion barrels of oil in the Barnett and Woodford regions of the field.

CEO John Christmann recently told analysts: “This really is a giant onion that is going to take us years and years to peel back and uncover. This is a world-class resource. You’ve got reservoir consistency, which is going to lead to very repeatable and predictable drilling results and targets.”

The CEO said that Apache will develop wells with average lateral lengths of 4,100ft.

Each well will cost about $4-6 million, about half what they cost before oil prices dropped dramatically in mid-2014.

Apache said it has identified 2,000 to 3,000 drilling locations that can make money at $50 a barrel oil and $3 per thousand ft³ of natural gas.

The field has just 19 wells on it now. However, to move product to market, Apache needs to install gas-processing infrastructure in the field, beginning with temporary capacity in the second half of this year.