Surging oil prices brought an extra $300 billion in 2005 to Bahrain and other producing nations in comparison to the previous year, 2004.
Despite the increase, such governments remain on the path to economic diversification, Bahrain's National Oil and Gas Authority chairman Dr. Abdul Hussain Mirza, announced at a recent opening of the fifth Middle East International Refining and Petrochemicals Conference and Exhibition.
More than 1,000 industry professionals and 130 companies from 21 countries are taking part in the three-day event, which will run from Monday through Wednesday.
"With the increase in oil prices, these countries added revenues exceed $300bn at the end of 2005," Mirza added, according to Gulf Daily News.
"However, with such high revenues these countries and particularly the GCC countries should not neglect or be distracted from their plans to divest their economies away from sole dependence on oil income."
He added that the increase in oil revenues was an opportunity for oil producing countries to diversify their economic infrastructure.
"This will be the right time to intensify pursuance of their plans for diversification and to create the enabling environments to encourage radical economic reforms and build and enhance their basic and essential infrastructures and industries," he said.
"In this respect our national oil companies are encouraged to engage in strategic alliances with each other and, where possible, with international oil companies to create or increase production capacity outside the boundaries of the region both upstream and downstream and to participate in joint ventures in consuming countries.
"There will be a pressing need for more transparency and joint oil data availability and dialogue between producing and consuming countries as the gap between their expectations widen."
