Although oil was first discovered in Bahrain in 1932, 85 percent of its identified reserves still remain in the ground due to the kingdom’s challenging geology. Only one thing is preventing higher extraction levels, according to James Eastlack, CEO of Tatweer Petroleum, the company in charge of the country’s hydrocarbon exploration and production activities: “It’s not a matter of money — it’s always possible to get money. Technology really is the whole answer to our problems.”

The challenges are clear at the kingdom’s Bahrain Oil Field, an onshore site in the center of Bahrain that is approximately 15 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide. The field contains a complex set of 16 oil and four gas reservoirs. Those reservoirs are stacked, with contents ranging from heavy oil near the surface, very light oil further down and gas at depths of 9,000 feet or more. And each of those reservoirs has unique geological characteristics that require different techniques for oil recovery.

“The field’s original oil reserves were estimated at 9.5 billion barrels and roughly 1.2 billion have been extracted to date. So, our recovery factor is roughly 12 to 14 percent, which is extremely low. The point is that there is an enormous amount of proven oil remaining to be produced, but the challenges are the reservoirs’ characteristics and finding the technology to produce them,” said Eastlack.

Tatweer has been working to meet those challenges since 2009. Prior to that, Bahrain Oil Field was the responsibility of the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) but, in a bid to revive the fortunes of the mature field, the government set