* Plans to invest $80 bln over next five years
* Says will drill 125 wells a year
* Algeria has struggled to attract foreign investment
* No detail on incentives for potential partners (Adds details from state news agency)
By Hamid Ould Ahmed and Lamine Chikhi
ALGIERS, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Algerian state energy companySonatrach said on Sunday it will intensify its explorationefforts by drilling 125 wells a year and expanding itstransportation network to help boost production over five years.
The North African OPEC state's crude oil and gas productionhas stagnated in recent years, stymied by a lack of foreigninvestors because of bureaucracy and security concerns, butneither Sonatrach nor the energy ministry provided details onincentives for potential oil partners.
Sonatrach's plans are crucial for a country that reliesheavily on energy exports to pay for social programmes that havehelped to maintain stability in an often volatile region.Domestic energy consumption is also growing.
Speaking at a North Africa oil and gas conference inAlgiers, Sonatrach's interim chief Said Sahnoun said the companywould invest about $80 billion by 2019 to boost production to225 million tonnes of oil equivalent, adding that he does notexpect lower oil prices to affect spending plans.
Last year Algeria's total production was 192 million tonnesof oil equivalent, including 121 million tonnes from naturalgas, 54.5 million tonnes from crude oil and 9.5 million tonnesfrom condensate.
"I remain optimistic about our energy output for the comingyears and we are ready to work with all of our partners,"Sahnoun said.
The Sonatrach head said development plans included buildingup transportation network and a focus on less mature fieldsaround Illizi, Berkine, Hassi Messaoud and Hassi R'mel areas,the APS state news agency said.
However, there was no indication on what measures will betaken to attract investors that largely shied away fromAlgeria's previous energy bidding round.
Sid Ali Betata, head of Algeria's hydrocarbons agency, saida new round was still being studied, with no date or furtherdetails available as yet.
"There will be no new bidding round before we change thelegal framework," said one senior Sonatrach source who asked notto be identified.
Only four of 31 areas on offer were taken by foreignconsortiums that included Spain's Repsol, Royal DutchShell and Norway's Statoil in Algeria's firstattempt to draw investors since a disappointing 2011 round.
Algeria expects to start production at six gasfields in thenext three years. The Amenas plant, which produced about 11.5percent of Algeria's gas before an attack by Islamist militantsnearly two years ago, is also close to a return to fullproduction.
Gabino Lalinde, a Repsol director, said the Spanish companyand its partners will invest $2 billion between May 2015 and May2017 to begin production at the Reggane gasfield.
"We expect production to start in 2017 with a capacity of 8million cubic meters per day," he told Reuters. (Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by David Goodman and DavidEvans)
