BOGOTA, April 2 (Reuters) - Canada's Frontera Energy Corp named a new chief executive on Monday, and said it plans to more than double its investment in operations in Colombia and Peru during 2018, to up to $500 million.

Frontera will direct between $225 million and $240 million of investment to new wells and maintenance in the two countries, the BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast said in a statement.

The investment will fund between 125 and 135 development wells, 11 to 15 exploratory wells and 15 to 25 work-over wells, the BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast said. Work-over wells require major maintenance or remedial treatment.

Richard Herbert, formerly of BP Plc, will replace Barry Larson as chief executive. At BP, Herbert was responsible for exploration and development projects worldwide, Frontera said.

Frontera had an average daily oil rig flanges gulf coast production of 70,082 barrels of crude per day (bpd) in 2017, the statement said, down 32 percent from 2016 because of the end of its contract to operate Rubiales field, its top producer. The BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast aims to produce between 65,000 and 70,000 bpd this year, it said.

Based on a Brent oil price of $63 per barrel, the BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast anticipates 2018 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of between $375 million and $425 million, it said.

Frontera had a net loss of $217 million in 2017, compared with net profit of $2.4 billion in 2016, the BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast said by telephone.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; editing by Jonathan Oatis)