Throughout human history, the date palm ( Phoenix dactylifera L.) has been an integral part of the rich heritage of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Dates have played a fundamental role in the economy and the social life of Bahrain's patrimony. However, the revolutionary changes that have accompanied the discovery of oil have had a massive impact on the cultivation of date palms. A number of factors have reduced interest in making investments in date palm cultivation; among them are socioeconomic changes, climatic conditions, limitation of freshwater, salinization of agricultural lands, and the spread of indigenous and invasive alien pest species. Over the last decades, the number of date palm trees has decreased from 892,000 to 534,600; those remaining are currently distributed over the fi ve governorates of the Kingdom. In spite of the challenges, Bahrain is striving to care for date palms as a state symbol and national treasure. Ex situ germplasm gene banks, in vitro facilities, and quarantine regulations and legislations have been established for the date palm. Nevertheless, Bahrain's annual yield does not exceed 16,000 mt. Consequently, improving date palm industry is a necessity to emphasize that the date palm tree is a valuable asset that unites and integrates the variant parts of the ecosystem and keeps it intact as a stable, well-defi ned, and sustained entity. Longterm sustainable development demands modernization of the currently performed conventional practices of date palm care, harvesting and postharvesting processes, trading, and marketing, which have not risen to the standards required. In this regard, this chapter describes the current status of the date palm cultivation in Bahrain and the threats confronting the date palm conservation and industry development and aims to highlight potential resolutions and prospects.

A field with about large number of wells, all equipped with electric submersible pumps (ESPs), was developed. ESPs are used to increase wellhead pressure, to overcome backpressure from surface facilities and to lift wells at a later stage when water cut increases. ESPs are selected as the primary artificial lift mechanism as it provides the highest differential pressure and system reliability when compared to other methods. For this field, a comparison study between the applicable artificial lift methods indicated ESPs are the most economical option. This paper will describe the ESP equipment selection process, completion schematic and installation process. The paper will then discuss several challenges encountered during the ESP installation, precommissioning and commissioning, in addition to solutions implemented to overcome these challenges.Examples of the technical and operational challenges encountered during the equipment design and selection process include well environment such as corrosion; well control regulations, especially requirements for physical barriers between the hydrocarbon formation and casing annulus; production engineering requirements to allow well intervention without damaging the formation; and the difficulties encountered during ESP installation and startup, such as wellhead penetrator damage, ESP system electrical integrity degradation, and difficulties starting-up ESPs due to high initial reservoir pressure.

A new technique is developed for modeling 3D permeability distributions. The technique integrates all available data into a fluid flow simulation model. The integrated modeling process honors the essential aspects of the established reservoir descriptions as well as the geological facies model and engineering data. The added value of data integration of the fluid flow simulation is illustrated by the improved accuracy of the resulting well performance predictions and the decrease in time requirements for reservoir modeling history matching. The technique utilizes diverse data at different scales to condition reservoir models of facies, porosity, and permeability. Such data includes 3D seismic, well logs, core measurements, geologic facies distribution, flow meter logs, and pressure buildup tests. The model building process explicitly accounts for the difference in scale of the various measurements. The model calculates the porosity, facies, and permeability in the inter well volume using geostatistical techniques that are constrained by seismic impedance derived from the 3D seismic data. The use of engineering data in the permeability modeling constrains the results and decreases the history matching time requirements. A case study demonstrates the modeling technique. A reservoir model is developed for the Unayzah Formation in the Hawtah Field of Saudi Arabia. The Unayzah is a highly stratified clastic reservoir in a mixed fluvial and eolian depositional environment. Data integration provided more realistic reservoir model for this complex geologic setting than the conventional approach. Specifically, the integrated approach provide a reservoir model that captured the complex and highly stratified nature of the lithological units. Fluid flow simulation was carried out for both the new integrated reservoir model and the conventional reservoir model. Results show tremendous savings in history matching time and more accurate results for use in reservoir management production strategies when applying the new technique.

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