Finding new ways to extract

ENAR

The exploration of new resources is not often a top priority for Middle Eastern national oil companies (NOCs). Thanks to giant oil fields discovered between 1940 and 1970, the region’s NOCs produce 35 percent of global oil output and hold more than 50 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves. For practical reasons, these companies today focus primarily on growing or maintaining production levels. This helps to generate revenue for the region’s governments but also helps to stimulate the development and diversification of the broader economy by providing employment opportunities and supporting local companies in the oil and gas supply chain. Undiscovered oil in the Middle East may only amount to a fraction of what has already been found. Nevertheless, exploration can unearth substantial discoveries. For example, Statoil, a Norwegian NOC, helped to discover a two-billion barrel oil field in 2010 within an area in Norway that had been explored