The Future of the Oil and Gas Industry of the Kingdom of Bahrain: The Directions of Modernization

Bahrain, which began to extract and export hydrocarbons earlier than other neighboring countries, managed to diversify the economy through sustainable development and revenues from the oil and gas industry. The modernization gave an impetus to deepening the diversification of the industry itself and the development of other sectors of the economy. The objectives of this paper are to analyze the development of a strategic industry for the Kingdom of Bahrain; to identify the areas of industry modernization and assess the future of the industry. By applying the methods of analysis, synthesis and induction, a characteristic of the development of the industry was given, and the features of modernization were revealed. It was concluded that the development of the oil and gas industry in Bahrain, despite the situation with the unfavorable price in the world energy markets, is characterized by stability and positive dynamics, and is accompanied by significant capital investments, including the investments in technological development. A number of factors underlie the improvement of the efficiency of the industry and its future sustainable development, the main of which is technical re-equipment, expansion of capacities, and diversification. In the future, the oil and gas sector will continue to make a significant contribution to sustainable economic development, and act as an important financing source for economic reforms in the country and further diversification of the economy of Bahrain. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.