Bahraini Oil Minister warns of a potential supply challenge in the very near future

In a CNBC interview at the Gateway Gulf Investor Forum in Manama, the Bahraini Oil Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa discussed the challenges that remain since the global oil price drop in 2015.

Key Quotes:

"One of the risks we have to be careful of is investments. Since the prices dropped in 2015, they have not really come back."

"And if you don't invest, you might face very soon a supply crunch."

"It was quite responsible for OPEC to try and get the level of investment back."

"So the question remains: is the investment back? And I think the answer is not quite. That still might suggest a potential supply challenge in the very near future."

But in terms of where the markets are, "they are quite balanced," he said, describing shale oil production in the U.S. as the enduring disruptive factor.

"The unknown remains how quickly U.S. shale will react. But the worries about natural decline of conventional oil since no investments have come are probably the real concerns that OPEC will probably have to focus on."