Bahrain said it discovered the largest oil and gas field in the history of the small kingdom, which unlike its Gulf neighbours, is not energy-rich.

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Authorities estimate the newfound reserves at "many times" the volume of Bahrain's only other known oil field, the state-run BNA news agency said.

BNA did not give details on the size of the new light shale oil and gas find or on the expected date of the start of production.Manama is the smallest producer of hydrocarbons in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which also groups Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Bahrain currently has only one oilfield with several hundred million barrels of crude reserves.

The field was the first to be discovered in the Gulf and the first to start production. It currently pumps around 50,000 barrels per day (bpd), in addition to over one billion cubic feet (28 million cubic metres) of natural gas daily.

The kingdom, which earns about 80 percent of its revenues from oil, receives another 150,000 bpd from the Abu Safa oilfield, which it shares with Saudi Arabia.