拥有数十年经验的美国致密岩勘探商EOG Resources计划将其页岩展带到波斯湾，并签署协议开发巴林陆上致密气砂岩。

EOG 在 2 月 28 日的第四季度财报电话会议上表示，该公司将与巴林 Bapco Energies 成立合资公司，担任运营商。

该公司补充说，一旦获得最后两项政府批准，钻探工作将于下半年开始，预算未公开。

首席运营官 Jeff Leitzell 在电话会议上告诉投资者：“今年我们实际上不会看到任何交易量上线。这些交易量可能会被推迟到 2026 年。”

除美国外，EOG 还在特立尼达和多巴哥、加拿大和澳大利亚开展业务。

EOG 董事长兼首席执行官 Ezra Yacob 表示：“该地层已经过测试。通过水平开发，已经取得了积极的生产成果。”

他补充说，测试一直是水平的。

 “我们乐观地认为，应用我们在横向 [D&C] 技术方面的专业知识应该会提高回报和业绩，并推动经济与国内投资组合具有竞争力。”

销售将集中于本地市场。

“如你所知，巴林并不是一个很大的岛屿，”雅各布指出。

“因此，我们在该地区确实拥有现有的基础设施和中游，如果我们的产品组合取得成功且具有竞争力，这将使我们能够相对较快地实现销售。”

一位分析师询问巴林的机遇是否会与EOG的特立尼达天然气部门一样大，或者更大。

亚科布表示：“我认为第一个迹象就是我们不会仅仅为了说我们有一个国际机会而去抓住国际机会。”

为了达到这一点，“我们需要几件事，首先，我们从探索的角度要有相当坚定的信念。”

还需要进行更多测试，但亚科布认为公司可以“将其转化为对股东有意义的事情”。

他说，这需要大量资源和规模潜力。

此外，EOG 希望检查的另一个方面是利益相关者的协调，“我们与 Bapco 找到了一个很好的合作伙伴”，Yacob 说道。

因此“我们对所找到的合作伙伴感到非常兴奋。”

Multi-decade U.S. tight-rock wildcatter EOG Resources plans to take its shale show to the Persian Gulf, signing a deal to develop Bahrain’s onshore tight-gas sandstone.

EOG will be the operator in a joint venture with Bahrain’s Bapco Energies, it said in its fourth-quarter earnings call Feb. 28.

Drilling will begin in the second half with an undisclosed budget once receiving two last government approvals, it added.

“We won't really see any volumes necessarily come online this year,” Jeff Leitzell, COO, told investors in the call. “They'll be pushed probably more into 2026.”

In addition to the U.S., EOG operates abroad in Trinidad and Tobago, Canada and Australia.

“The formation has been tested,” Ezra Yacob, EOG chairman and CEO, said. “It's seen positive production results already with horizontal development.”

The tests have been horizontal, he added.

 “We're optimistic that applying our expertise in horizontal [D&C] technologies should enhance the returns and the results and drive economics to be competitive with the domestic portfolio.”

Sales will be into the local market.

“And as you know, Bahrain is not a significantly large island,” Yacob noted.

“So we do have existing infrastructure and midstream in the area, which would allow us to, if successful and competitive with our portfolio, go to sales relatively quickly.”

An analyst asked if the Bahrain opportunity could be as large—or larger—than EOG’s Trinidad gas unit.

“I think the first tell is that we wouldn’t take an opportunity internationally just to say that we have an international opportunity,” Yacob said.

To proceed to this point, “we need a couple of things and the first is that we have pretty strong conviction from an exploration standpoint.”

More tests are needed, but Yacob thinks the company can “turn this into something that's meaningful for our shareholders.”

That requires sizable resource and the potential for scale, he said.

Also, another box EOG would want to check is stakeholder alignment, “and we found a good partner” with Bapco, Yacob said.

So “we couldn't be more thrilled with the partnership that we've found.”