据路透社2月27日报道称，巴林石油部长周二表示，巴林正在与拥有页岩油专业知识的美国石油公司就开发去年发现的一个大型油气田进行谈判，并希望在今年年底之前找到一家对此领域感兴趣的合作伙伴。

去年4月，巴林宣布在其西海岸发现了自1932年以来最大的石油和天然气田，估计至少含有800亿桶致密油。

石油部长谢赫在接受路透社采访时表示，第一口测试井正在钻探中。“我们应该让它运作起来......也许到4月底。”

致密油是一种轻质原油，深埋于地表以下的页岩中，采用水力压裂技术利用深水平井进行开采。

谢赫表示，页岩储量的回收率约为可用储量的5-15％。

他表示，巴林的主要目标是美国的主要石油公司和独立公司，这些公司在美国页岩领域中具有“运营能力，因为致密油目前在美国非常普遍”。

徐蕾 摘译自 路透社

原文如下：

Bahrain talking to U.S. oil companies about tight oil deal

Bahrain is talking to U.S. oil companies with shale oil expertise about developing a huge oil and gas field discovered last year, and hopes to have an interested company by the end of the year, the oil minister said on Tuesday.

Last April Bahrain said it had discovered its largest oil and gas find since 1932 off its west coast, estimated to contain at least 80 billion barrels of tight oil.

The first test well is being drilled now, Oil Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa told Reuters in an interview. "We should have it flowing ... maybe by the end of April."

Tight oil is a form of light crude oil held in shale deep below the earth's surface that is extracted with hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, using deep horizontal wells.

Al Khalifa said the recovery rate for shale deposits is around 5-15 percent of available reserves.

He said Bahrain is targeting major U.S. oil companies and independent companies which have "operating capabilities in U.S. shale, because tight oil is very much a U.S. phenomenon now".