- Bahrain says it will invite international oil companies to help it develop its reputed 80B-barrel discovery, hoping to begin production within five years.
- “Only a fraction of the 80B-plus barrels is likely to be recoverable,” says Tom Quinn, senior analyst for Middle East upstream at Wood Mackenzie Ltd. “The oil will also be technically challenging and potentially high cost to develop,” while Bahrain’s previous oil contracts offered meager returns for international oil companies.
- Bahrain's oil ministry says the size of recoverable resources and the cost to develop them are not yet known, but international oil companies will be invited to join once there’s more data; last year the country produced only 49K bbl/day of crude from its only wholly owned field.
- Halliburton (HAL -0.9%) will drill two wells this year in the offshore Khaleej Al Bahrain Basin to appraise how much of the oil contained underground is actually recoverable, with the first well in the drilling program expected to start producing in August.
- Now read: Halliburton: Is It A Bargain?
Original article