Page 11 - MEOG Week 48 2021

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

nogaholding expects KAB

development to take time

BAHRAIN THE head of Bahrain’s state-owned energy National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) that
investment firm anticipates that development of was abolished by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa,
the Kingdom’s Khalij Al Bahrain (KAB) reser- has previously said it expects to achieve 200,000
voir will not begin until the late 2020s owing to barrels per day (bpd).
market and structural complexities. Following KAB’s discovery in April 2018,
Mark Thomas, CEO of nogaholding, this the government’s National Oil & Gas Authority
week told S&P Global Platts that the company (NOGA) initiated talks with IOCs, primarily
has so far drilled two wells to appraise the 80bn those engaged in the US shale industry, about
barrel offshore tight oil deposit that was discov- developing the asset. KAB is estimated to hold
ered in 2018, and is currently evaluating the 80bn barrels of tight oil.
recovered data. Halliburton was contracted to carry out ini-
“We brought in a couple of IOCs to give us tial drilling and well tests in the 2,000-square km
their evaluation. The size of investment we area to the south-west of Bahrain. In February
require to develop an unconventional field off- 2020, Italy’s Eni signed an MoU with NOGA
shore will be tremendous: you basically take the subsidiary Tatweer Petroleum Co. to explore
Permian and put it in water,” he said. collaboration in various domains, including gas.
With this in mind, nogaholding is taking This followed the signing of an exploration and
a pragmatic approach and will consider any production-sharing agreement (EPSA) in Jan-
type of contract model for KAB’s development, uary 2019 to explore the 2,800-square km off-
including sharing profits and oil production. shore Block 1 area to the north of the main island
“We are flexible on terms and we are flexible under which the Italian firm drilled its first well
on structure, and all we know, it’s a tremendous earlier this year following pandemic-related
amount of capital to come and develop this. It delays.
will have to be a long-term partnership,” Thomas Also in 2020, a letter of intent (LoI) was
said, noting that Bahrain is also open to direct signed between nogaholding and shale-special-
negotiations with investors for three other off- ist Chevron calling for the US major to assist Tat-
shore blocks. weer in evaluating the basin. No further details
Meanwhile, he alluded to the difficulties of on the terms of the accord were disclosed.
attracting investment from IOCs as firms around In November 2020, Tatweer’s director-gen-
the world embrace the energy transition. “With eral of petroleum exploration and development,
the energy transition that is going on today, we Yahya Al Ansari, unveiled plans to drill eight
recognise that to attract IOCs to come in we have new offshore wells to a depth of 8,000-13,000 feet
to have a very attractive offer. That’s part of our (2,438-3,962 metres) and a horizontal extension
discussions right now with IOCs,” he said. Talks of 914-3,000-plus metres.
are ongoing with various IOCs, but American Tatweer currently produces around 40,000
firms with experience in the Permian are being bpd from the onshore Awali (Bahrain) field, the
given priority. site of the Gulf Co-operation Council’s (GCC)
Thomas added that it anticipates having first oil find in 1932, which remains the king-
an IOC partner in place next year, with efforts dom’s sole source of domestic production and
then focusing on a development plan for KAB, has a capacity of around 46,000 bpd.
including carrying out more seismic and drilling Manama also receives a 50% share of the
work. He said that it would probably “be in the 150,000 bpd produced by Saudi Aramco at the
second half of this decade before any material offshore Abu Sa’fah oilfield, which is pumped
development starts to happen offshore”. alongside a further 75,000 bpd of Arabian Light
The comments come in sharp contrast to crude from the Abqaiq processing facilities in
those given in October by Oil Minister Sheikh Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province via the 350,000
Mohammed bin Khalifa al-Khalifa, who said he bpd Saudi-Bahrain A-B oil pipeline.™
anticipated that the field’s development should
begin by 2023. “Initially when we started in 2018,
we said five years, so we should be ready by then.
What we need to prove first is the geological and
technical viability. Once we get there, hopefully
we will have investors,” the minister said.
Khalifa said that with testing remaining in a
preliminary stage, adding that it is still too early
to provide an estimated production rate from
the asset. However, the Ministry of Oil (MoO),
which recently assumed the functions of the

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