Nineteen new oil wells have been drilled and have started to produce oil at Bahrain's onshore fields, it was revealed.

Oil and Gas Affairs Minister and National Oil and Gas Authority chairman Dr Abdulhussain Mirza said these wells have already started contributing towards Bahrain arresting the constant decline in oil production.

'Six more wells are now in the process of being commissioned,' he told our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN), speaking on the sidelines of a major conference.

'By the end of the year, there will be 25 fully-operational wells, which will be the beginning of a process to drill 3,500 wells in the next two decades,' he added.

The two-day Well Control Middle East Conference and Exhibition 2010, organised by the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC), is being held at the Gulf Convention Centre, Gulf Hotel, under the patronage of the minister.

'Two international companies are also now engaged in exploration work offshore and they hope to commission eight test wells very soon,' Dr Mirza said.

'This will lead to Bahrain's oil production rising up to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd), from the present 32,000 bpd in the next seven years,' he added.

The minister said several steps taken by the newly set up Tatweer Petroleum, which came into existence in December last year, have already meant a halt in declining oil production for the first time in 33 years.

'From early next year, we shall begin to see a gradual increase,' he added.

The minister said the event, coming immediately after the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill in the US, would help Bahrain's professionals look at state-of-the-art safety technology being used worldwide to prevent oil well blowouts and other incidents.

'We are already using technology that is the latest because we do not want any oil well-related incidents,' he added.

He said the new exploration work carried out offshore by reputed international oil and gas companies, the US Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) and Thailand's PTTEP, is also looking positive.

'They are ready to start drilling soon and the plan is for them to have eight test wells in the very near future,' he said.

The minister revealed plans to drill gas wells with a $200 million investment to meet the additional demand in Bahrain over the next five years.

IADC operations and accreditation group vice-president Steve Kropla earlier welcomed the minister and said the oil and gas industry is still recovering from the greatest global economic shock of more than 75 years.

He said the industry has to remain alert to the risks it faces, and must re-examine them both from a current and future investment perspective.

He said oil companies should identify risks, encourage insights and indulge in revolutionary thinking, adopt a practical approach and plan exploration projects based on the current industry scenario.-TradeArabia News Service