MANAMA, April 4 (Reuters) - A new discovery off the coast ofBahrain is estimated to contain at least 80 billion barrels oftight oil, the kingdom's biggest ever find, Bahrain’s oilminister said.
Bahrain said on Sunday it had discovered extensive tight oiland deep gas resources off the west coast of the kingdom.
Independent appraisals by U.S.-based oil consultantsDeGolyer and MacNaughton and oilfield services companyHalliburton had confirmed Bahrain’s find of "highlysignificant quantities of oil in place for the Khalij AlBahrain, with tight oil amounting to at least 80 billionbarrels, and deep gas reserves in the region of 10-20 trillioncubic feet," Oil Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al-Khalifasaid.
Tight oil is a form of light crude oil held in shale deepbelow the earth’s surface.
"Agreement has been reached with Halliburton to commencedrilling on two further appraisal wells in 2018, to furtherevaluate reservoir potential, optimise completions, and initiatelong-term production," he told a news conference in Manama.
Sheikh Mohammed said he was not sure yet how much of theestimated 80 billion barrels was recoverable, but the kingdomaims to attract foreign oil and gas firms to develop theresources.
"The newly-discovered resource, which officials expect to be‘on production’ within five years, is expected to providesignificant and long-term positive benefits to the kingdom’seconomy – both directly and indirectly through downstreamactivities in related industries," a statement by Bahrain'sNational Communication Centre said.
The new energy resource is expected to contain many timesthe amount of oil produced by Bahrain's existing oilfields, aswell as large amounts of gas, state news agency BNA reported onSunday.
The small non-OPEC Gulf oil producer gets it oil revenuesfrom two fields: the onshore Bahrain field, and the offshore AbuSafah field, which is shared jointly with Saudi Arabia.(Reporting by Davide Barbuscia; writing by Rania El Gamal;editing by Jason Neely and Adrian Croft)
