- Bahrain鈥檚 Minister said the quantities of oil discovery may exceed 80 billion barrels
- The area of the new oil discovery is estimated at 2000 square kilometers
Dubai: The small island-nation of Bahrain on Wednesday announced the discovery of 80 billion barrels of shale oil, its largest oil and gas find ever.
Bahrain鈥檚 oil minister and energy executives detailed the find at a press conference, saying the tight oil was discovered in the offshore Khalij Al-Bahrain Basin, which spans some 2,000 square kilometers (770 square miles) in shallow waters off the country鈥檚 western coast.
The field also contains an estimated 14 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Oil Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said the amount of oil that can be extracted from the Khalij Al-Bahrain Basin is still being studied.
Still, the discovery dwarfs the onshore Bahrain oil field, which produces around 45,000 barrels per day. The non-OPEC country also produces close to 160,000 barrels of oil per day from an offshore field it shares with 抖阴短视频.
The minister announced a separate discovery of gas reserves below Bahrain鈥檚 main gas reservoir, with estimates that push deep gas reserves in the region to between 10 and 20 trillion cubic feet.
Experts and officials said they expect the newly discovered oil field to be 鈥榦n production鈥� within five years.
Bahrain started pumping oil in 1932, becoming the first among its Arab Gulf neighbors to produce oil.
Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy鈥檚 5th Fleet, is not a major oil producer, but the new finds have the potential to significantly raise the country鈥檚 profile and boost its economy, which has suffered blows in recent years from lower oil prices.
The country has introduced some austerity measures to limit spending and boost revenue, including reducing some fuel subsidies and increasing taxes. Like 抖阴短视频 and the United Arab Emirates, it introduced a 5 percent value-added tax this year to most goods and services.