TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Bahrain launches $1 billion energy fund
Change Size
A picture taken from a plane shows a general view of an offshore oil platform in Bahrain on April 4, 2018. Bahrain announced its newly discovered shale oil reserve was estimated to contain more than 80 billion barrels, making the once-marginal oil producer potentially a major player in the market.
(AFP/stringer)
B
ahrain's government has launched an energy fund that aims to raise $1 billion from local, regional and international investors to develop the kingdom's energy assets, Oil Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al-Khalifa said on Thursday.
The Bahrain Energy Fund will receive its initial capital from local entities including Nogaholding, the investment arm of Bahrain's National Oil and Gas Authority, as well as from investment banks Osool and SICO, according to the minister's statement.
It will invest in a range of energy projects across the downstream, mid-stream and upstream sectors, including developments in a newly discovered oil and gas resource.
In April, Bahrain said it had discovered extensive tight oil and deep gas resources off the west coast of the kingdom, estimated to contain some 80 billion barrels of tight oil resources, a form of light crude oil held in shale deep below the earth's surface.
Bahrain, which has sub-investment grade ratings from all three major credit rating agencies, earned $4.3 billion in oil and gas revenue last year and ran a budget deficit of $2.7 billion.
The small non-OPEC Gulf oil producer, with around 124.6 million barrels of proven reserves, gets it oil revenues from two fields: the onshore Bahrain field, and the offshore Abu Safah field, which is shared jointly with Saudi Arabia.
