Business | Oil & Gas
Bahrain considers $2b refinery expansion
Bahrain's plans to add 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of new refinery capacity to its Bapco plant would cost over $2 billion, the country's minister of oil and gas affairs Abdul Hussain Bin Ali Mirza said.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:06 May 27, 2008
Manama: Bahrain's plans to add 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of new refinery capacity to its Bapco plant would cost over $2 billion, the country's minister of oil and gas affairs Abdul Hussain Bin Ali Mirza said.
The kingdom's only refinery Bapco has capacity of around 260,000 bpd. The expansion would increase capacity beyond 2016, Mirza told reporters late on Sunday.
"The next phase of investment will cost more than $2 billion," Mirza said. "Some units at the plant are old and need upgrading." The plan was contingent on obtaining increased crude supplies from Saudi Arabia, he added.
Saudi pipeline
A pipeline pumping 220,000 bpd of Saudi oil to Bahrain would need to be expanded, he said.
The refinery has five crude distillation units, and would like to revamp them to have just one or two large units, he said.
Bapco would also like to build a unit to convert heavy fuel oil into lighter transport fuels, he added.
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