Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa has made a minor cabinet reshuffle, replacing the country’s oil minister, state-owned Bahrain News Agency reported. 

Mohammed bin Khalifa bin Hamad has been appointed energy minister, replacing Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, according to the agency. Mirza has been appointed minister of water and electricity.

Bahrain is the latest among the GCC countries, which account for almost a third of the world’s proven oil reserves, to change energy ministers after the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Manama is looking for new investment partners to develop the Bahrain field, its largest onshore oil and gas field, after the UAE’s Mubadala Petroleum and US-based Occidental Petroleum agreed to pull out of a joint venture, a Mubadala spokesperson told MEED on 26 May.

The two overseas companies had formed a 20-year joint venture called Tatweer Petroleum with Bahrain’s government-controlled Oil and Gas Holding Company (Nogaholding) in 2009, with the aim of increasing the capacity of the Bahrain field.