The projects include the multi-billion dollar Bapco modernisation programme and the Bahrain LNG Import Terminal

Oil and gas projects worth about $6 billion are under way or soon to begin in Bahrain, Oil Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa has said.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Middle East Refining Technology Conference (MERTC), Shaikh Mohammed said the projects include the multi-billion dollar Bapco modernisation programme, Bahrain LNG Import Terminal, Bahrain National Gas Expansion Company’s third gas plant and an aromatics facility joint venture between Bapco and Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Corporation (PIC).

The Bapco Modernisation Programme is on track for completion in 2022, he said with the $4.2 billion engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning turnkey contract awarded last month to a consortium led by TechnipFMC. The signing of the contract is expected shortly, he added.

The programme entails the expansion of the capacity of the existing Sitra oil refinery from 267,000 up to 360,000 barrels per day (bpd) besides improving energy efficiency, valorisation of the heavy part of the crude oil barrel (bottom of the barrel), enhancing products and meeting environmental compliance.

The minster also said Bahrain is looking for more partners to develop the Bahrain oilfield, which was exited by Mubadala and Occidental Petroleum in 2016.

The National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga) this year will complete major projects, including the new 350,000 bpd pipeline (A-B) between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. 'More than 50 per cent of the construction and modernisation of the pipeline has been completed and the pipeline is now being laid underground in the south of Bahrain,' he said.