On Sunday, the Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain, the smallest energy producer in the Arabian Gulf, announced the discovery of a shale oil and a deep gas resource in Khaleej Al Bahrain Basin, which is located off the west coast of the country, according to The National.
The latest find represents the largest discovery of oil in the kingdom since 1932 when extraction started on Bahrain’s first oil well within the Bahrain Oil Field.
From its Bahrain Oil Field, the country currently pumps an estimated 45,000 barrels of oil a day and it shares income from a deposit with Saudi Arabia that produces about 300,000 barrels a day, according to figures from the US Energy Information Administration.
"The new resource is forecast to contain highly significant quantities of tight oil and deep gas, understood to dwarf Bahrain’s current reserves," Bahrain News Agency reported.
Bahrain discovered the offshore Khaleej Al Bahrain Basin as it seeks to expand output capacity at its wholly owned Bahrain Oil Field to 100,000 barrels a day by the end of the decade.
From 2013 to 2016, as crude prices slumped as much as 77 percent globally, the kingdom’s revenue from oil and gas dropped 43 percent, according to most recent data available from the Finance Ministry.
"The discovery, which is expected to support extensive, long-term downstream activities, follows a recent uplift in oil and gas exploration projects," the news agency added.