Bahrains new oil and gas statistics revealed soaring exports over the first half of this year, according to a report released by the National Oil and Gas Authority. By-product sales also rose by 10 per cent. Production of crude from the Bahrain and Abu Saafa fields dropped slightly to 32.659mn barrels from 32.922mn barrels last year.

Wood Mackenzie released a new report that revealed that global upstream capital spending in 2010 will return to higher growth and is set to exceed US$380 billion.

Saudi Arabia is hoping to extract more crude from the worlds largest oilfield using new technology, the countrys biggest oil producing company has said.

Saudi Arabias central bank governor has warned that the kingdom must tame growth in its domestic oil and gas consumption, which are too big for both its population growth and the size of its economy.

Iraq has increased the official size of its proven oil reserves with new data suggesting that they have reached 143.1 billion barrels of oil, up from a previous 115 billion barrels, the countrys Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has said.