Bahrain has ramped up its year-on-year oil production by over 650,000 barrels in 2015, the annual National Oil and Gas Authority report revealed on Monday.
‘A slight improvement in oil and gas production was witnessed in 2015, where Bahrain Field (the Kingdom’s largest oilfield) production was 18.46mn barrels, compared with 17.805mn barrels in 2014’, the report said.
Oil imports from Saudi Arabia have also increased from 76mn barrels in 2014 to over 78mn barrels in 2015.
Bahrain is estimated to export 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) out of its 200,000 bpd output.
Commenting on the report, Bahraini Energy Minister Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza said 2015 marked the start of a number of strategic projects, including the launch of a first liquefied natural gas terminal valued at $650mn.
The Kingdom imports 230,000 bpd of oil from Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oilfield – through a pipeline – to be refined at the country’s main refinery at Sitra, the Bahrain Refinery.
Since 2014, Bahrain has been planning to build a new oil pipeline with Saudi, to import crude oil for its refinery, although various aspects of the project are yet to be finalised.
The two GCC states plan to build a new 115km-long pipeline, with a carrying capacity of 350,000 bpd to replace the ageing 230,000 bpd pipeline.
“The estimated cost of this project is about $300mn,” Majdi Khalaf, managing director and CEO of Bahrain-based First Equity Energy told Oil & Gas Middle East.
“The new pipeline is 100km longer than the old one and is away from residential areas, which were uninhabited when the old pipeline was first built. The new pipeline was built to ensure the safety of residents and to allow for urban expansion,” Khalaf said.
The project also has a strategic significance, not only in terms of replacing the old pipeline (which had less capacity and higher maintenance costs), but also to increase the export capacity from 230,000bpd to 350,000 bpd.
The new pipeline, expected to be operational by 2018, will enable Bapco to expand the processing capacity of the Sitra refinery – which currently refines 267,000 bpd – to 367,000 bpd, as it steps up oil imports from its larger neighbour Saudi Arabia.
