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“Agreement has been reached with Halliburton to commence drilling on two further appraisal wells in 2018, to further evaluate reservoir potential, optimize completions, and initiate long-term production,” Sheikh Mohammed told a news conference in Manama.

He said he was not sure yet how much of the estimated 80 billion barrels was recoverable, but the kingdom aims to attract foreign oil and gas firms to develop the resources.

“The newly discovered resource, which officials expect to be ‘on production’ within five years, is expected to provide significant and long-term positive benefits to the kingdom’s economy – both directly and indirectly through downstream activities in related industries,” Bahrain’s National Communication Centre said in a statement.

Sadad al-Husseini, a former senior executive at Saudi Aramco and now an energy consultant, said the discovery was positive news for Bahrain, but more data gathering, evaluation and well testing needed to follow to determine whether there are any future commercial opportunities in the resources.

“Converting resource estimates to reserves is an intense and costly process and not all the resources may ultimately be upgraded to reserves,” he said.

“The additional drilling and data gathering will serve to improve the accuracy and reliability of the estimate.”

Bahrain, which is rated junk by all three major credit rating agencies, revealed the oil discovery just a few days after yields on its international bonds spiked as investors became more concerned about its rising public debt levels.