Work on a new crude oil pipeline between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia is progressing well and will be completed by the end of 2017, Gulf Daily News has reported.
Once ready, the pipeline system will be able to deliver up to 400,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) to Bahrain Oil Company (Bapco), the report said citing Bahrain’s energy minister.
Dr Abdulhussain Mirza told parliament, in writing, that the pipeline network, which will be operational in the first quarter of 2018, will replace the existing aging facilities between Bapco and Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Mirza said that the EPC contract for the project will be awarded in August with more updates due to be discussed during a weekly parliamentary session on Tuesday.
“The existing network will be removed and the route will be cancelled, but we have to test the new network first to ensure there are no technical faults,” he said.
“We expect to have the new network opened in the first quarter of 2018, and dismantling of the existing pipelines is expected to begin in the second half of 2018, which will depend on contractors that will be selected,” stated the minister.
“The new network will give us up to 350,000 bpd from Saudi Arabia that will reach up to 400,000 depending on flexibility, which is a significant increase from the current 230,000 daily barrels transferred from Aramco,” he said.
The GDN reported in January that the new 115km pipeline with a 30-inch diameter will run onshore for 74km, with the remaining 42km due to be built offshore.
An Aramco official told the Gulf Daily News last year that the cost of the project is estimated at $350mn.
The front-end engineering and design of the project were completed by Australian firm WorleyParsons in 2014.
The pipeline will play a key part in Bapco’s $6bn planned expansion of the Sitra refinery to reach a total capacity of 500,000 bpd.
The new Saud-Bahrain system will replace the current aging infrastructure and raise Saudi Aramco’s transport capacity from its Abqaiq plant to Bahrain to 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 230,000 bpd currently, according to TradeArabia.
“[The pipeline] will also cater to future increase in crude oil demand post implementation of the Bapco modernisation programme,” Bapco’s general manager for major engineering projects Abdul Jabbar Abdul Karim said in January.
