Bahrain is negotiating with US-based oil services companies Haliburton and Schlumberger for work on developing oil and gas resources in the kingdom.

Haliburton is in talks to work on Pre-Khuff gas resource. Once the negotiations are concluded it will drill six wells in two-three years.

“We are working with Haliburton to start the Pre-Khuff programme,” said Bahrain Oil Minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Khalifa al-Khalifa at the Gateway Gulf Investor Forum in Bahrain on 9 May.

There is also oil that can be extracted. “For the oil, we are in negotiations with Schlumberger to look at co-investing with us in applying technology,” said Sheikh Mohamed.

The Pre-Khuff is located below the existing and operational Bahrain oil field.

It is in two formations known as Jubah and Jauf, with reserves of anywhere between 10 and 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf).

Speaking to MEED in late April, Sheikh Mohamed said: “The recovery rate we expect to be quite high, somewhere north of 5 tcf of gas to be recovered.”

Although the volumes expected from the Pre-Khuff resource are significant, Bahrain does not expect to become a major exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).