Bahrain looks to overhaul oil industry
Bahrain's oil industry is undergoing a major overhaul, said Abdulhussain Mirza, the country's oil and gas affairs minister and National Oil and Gas Authority chairman.
"In the coming 15 years, we are planning to add another 700 wells to maintain and increase oil production," he told Gulf Daily News. "Many of the wells will be special architecture wells to maximize reservoir contact."
Mirza said many others were relying on oil from the Middle East.
"With the right technology, business environment and people, the energy challenges of the future are within our collective power to resolve," he said. "It is up to each of us to work towards making that happen. We all know that two-thirds of the world's proven oil reserves lie in Middle East fields."
The country's development of new oil and gas supplies will require large investments, Mirza said.
"Our challenge is to combine technology, business and people in a way that enables us to successfully explore for and produce these supplies and deliver them to the market as efficiently as possible," he said.
High oil prices blamed on dollar, supplies
Oil prices have reached record highs recently, largely due to the dollar's weakness and supply concerns.
Analysts say OPEC members Ecuador and Nigeria have experienced shortages, and the continued weakness of the U.S. dollar is driving speculation in the market.
Prices have steadied since peaking but are still above $102 a barrel.
The Trans-Ecuadorian pipeline operated by Petroecuador closed a major pipeline and there was an outage in Nigeria's Brass River region and a fire at a British natural gas terminal.
Oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet this week in Vienna, Austria, and oil prices may change as the cartel discusses changes to its current output quotas. The cartel is expected to continue its current quotas, though some ministers had previously discussed production cuts.
ONGC to develop Gulf oil field
Iran Offshore Oil Co. and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. have finalized a financial proposal for develop a gas field and oil field in the Gulf.
IOOC Managing Director Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh said the two sides completed negotiations about the Farsi field in Tehran, Gulf Daily News reported.
"In our negotiations ... their financial proposal about the development on Farsi field was received and finalized," he said.
ONGC is now set to begin technical studies. The project is planned to take place in two phases with an expected yield of 500 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from each phase.
In 2006 Iran said ONGC Videsh Ltd. found oil in this block. Iran is drawing interest from Indian and Chinese firms that are interested in tapping the world's second-largest reserves of oil and gas.
ONGC and Hinduja Group are also looking at joining the development of Iran's South Pars Phase 12 gas field and the country's Azadegan oil field.
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Closing oil prices, March 3, 3 p.m. London
Brent crude oil: $102.31
West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $101.71
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