His Excellency Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance and Minister in Charge of Oil and Gas Affairs opened the Middle East Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 at the Diplomat Radisson Blu hotel. The conference will continue until Wednesday, November 28.



The event is being organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and sponsored by major international companies like Weatherford, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Alkhorayef Petroleum, Saudi Aramco and Zenith.



In his opening remarks, the Minister hailed the role of the conference in presenting a new platform to identify and analyse global exploration activities, promote the region’s potential and discuss strategies that will further advance the oil and gas sector in the region and world-wide.



The Minister said that in its most recent ‘World Economic Outlook’, the IMF has predicted a slight improvement in the global economy; while the MENA growth rates are estimated to be at 5.1% and 3.6% for 2012 and 2013 respectively. According to the latest World Energy Outlook, oil demand will reach 99.7 million barrels a day by 2035, up from 87.4 million barrels a day in 2011. Taken together, these growth rates mean that the oil and gas sector can look forward to continued expansion, he pointed out.



He also said that oil was first discovered in the GCC region in 1932 in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) that is responsible for ensuring that Bahrain’s future oil and gas requirements are met, formulates strategies to modernize the nation’s oil and gas companies by applying the best international standards and practices.



The activities of NOGA are aligned with the guiding principles of Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030 and National Economic Strategy, which aim to develop the country in a sustainable fashion, while providing prosperity to its population and caring for the environment, and the health and safety of its citizens. Bahrain continually assesses its upstream and downstream businesses, developing mid-term strategies that will enhance productivity utilizing advance technology and training to optimize productivity in all its affiliate oil and gas companies.



There is an increased focus worldwide on tapping into difficult reserves, including existing developed wells, and modernizing systems. Engineering solutions are being developed to maximize production and minimize operational cost, while attempts are made to train enablers and form strategic alliances between operators and service providers, the Minister said. He added that currently most of the oil wells in the Bahrain Oil Field utilize artificial lift systems, which contribute to a considerable volume of oil production from the field. The lifts used include continuous gas lifts, intermittent gas lifts and sucker rod pumps.



With the renewed need to increase production to meet increasing demand, the world’s upstream petroleum industry is venturing into unconventional initiatives to extract additional barrels from complex reservoirs. In this respect, the Minister highlighted the establishment of Tatweer Petroleum as a joint exploration venture in partnership with Occidental Petroleum of the US and Mubadala of the UAE, where the most advanced technologies aimed to enhance oil production to the optimal level are employed.



A number of international specialists and professionals in the field of oil exploration participated in the conference.