Daybreak Oil & Gas Inc, a Spokane-based company engaged in gas exploration, development, and production, says it plans to drill 20 wells in Eastern Kentucky. 

The company says in a news release that it broke ground on the first of those wells March 19 and is working with Kentucky-based App Energy LLC, which owns the land and is the operator on the project.

Daybreak has worked out a drilling rotation with App Energy through which Daybreak will drill the first four wells, then release its rig to App Energy, which will drill four wells, and so on until all 20 wells are complete. Daybreak says it owns an average 25 percent working interest in approximately 6,400 acres under lease in the Appalachian Basin, in what’s known as the Twin Bottoms area, where it plans to drill the wells. 

Daybreak CEO James Westmoreland says that this past winter, Daybreak completed several improvements on the infrastructure of the wells at Twin Bottoms. 

Improvements include installing a six-inch gas pipeline and a natural-gas compressor, and constructing and installing a centralized oil storage facility.  

“Daybreak should exit the 2014-2015 fiscal year as a significantly stronger company, with positive cash flows and earnings per share for the first time in the history of the company,” Westmoreland says.