By Andy Sambridge
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Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) announced on Tuesday it had completed the drilling of three gas wells as part of a $100m plan to boost natural gas production.
The Gulf state is aiming to produce an additional 500 million cubic feet per day, the company said in a statement.
The programme, which involves drilling a total of eight new deep gas wells in the Khuff gas reservoir, aims to meet the kingdom’s growing demand for natural gas for power generation and fuel gas for local industries.
In addition to the eight new wells, the programme also includes the workover of five previously-drilled wells at the same reservoir.
In the initial phase of the programme, Bapco plans to commission four wells along with their gas dehydration units before summer 2010.
Earlier this year, Bahrain said it was planning to spend more than $20 billion in the next 20 years on developing its oil and gas sector.
Oil and Gas Affairs Minister and National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga) chairman Dr Abdulhussain Mirza said this would include an expenditure of $15bn on the development and modernisation of the Bahrain Oil Field and $5bn on modernising the Bapco refinery.
He said the expansion of the oil industry would create thousands of new job opportunities for Bahrainis.
