Oil and natural gas  

As previously said, Bahrain was the first country of the Arabian Peninsula where oil was discovered.  

The Bahraini oil industry, due to the scarcity of its oil reserves, is principally sustained by oil refining products, obtained by processing crude oil mainly imported from Saudi Arabia. Bapco (Bahrain Petroleum Company) is the Government owned company which, until now, has predominantly managed the oil reserves and the refining process.  

The Government has called an international tender to assign research licenses, and in case also license to exploit offshore oilfields, dividing the designated area in four blocks; it also called tenders for the only onshore oilfield (Awali). Until now two offshore blocks have been assigned to US firm Occidental, and one offshore block has been attained by Thai firm PTTEP.  

It is believed that Bahrain also has natural gas resources. Since 1990 the Government has begun to encourage foreign investments in the oil and gas sectors which, at the time, were completely nationalized.

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