With the renewed need to boost production to meet increasing demand, upstream petroleum industry worldwide is venturing into unconventional initiatives to extract additional barrels of oil from complex reservoirs, said a top Bahrain government official.

"Most of the oil wells in the Bahrain Oil Field utilise artificial lift systems, which contribute to a considerable volume of oil production from the field," said Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, the Finance Minister and Minister in charge of Oil and Gas Affairs, at the opening of the two-day Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition in Bahrain.

"The lifts used include continuous and intermittent gas lifts and sucker rod pumps," he stated.

Global exploration activities and the Middle East's potential in advancing the oil and gas sector formed the highlight of the conference on accessing unexploited reserves, said a report in the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

"With the renewed need to increase production to meet increasing demand, the world's upstream petroleum industry is venturing into unconventional initiatives to extract additional barrels from complex reservoirs," he added.

Growth rates for the oil and gas sector continue to expand, said the minister.

Oil demand will touch 99.7 million barrels a day by 2035, from 87.4 million barrels a day last year, according to the latest World Energy Outlook.

The global economy is expected to slightly improve, he said quoting International Monetary Fund estimates that the Middle East and North Africa region will grow at 5.1 per cent this year and 3.6 per cent in 2013.

There in an increased focus worldwide on accessing difficult reserves, including existing developed wells, and modernising systems.

Engineering solutions are being developed to maximise production and minimise operational cost, while attempts are being made to train enablers and form strategic alliances between operators and service providers, the minister added.

Bahrain's Tatweer Petroleum has entered into a joint exploration venture with Occidental Petroleum of the US and the UAE's Mubadala, to boost oil production.-TradeArabia News Service