11/10/2017
A new oil pipeline with a capacity of 350,000 barrels per day
will be complete in Saudi Arabia next year to serve the planned
expansion of the capacity of a refinery in Bahrain, while a gas pipeline
is being studied, said Sheikh Muhammed Al Khalifa, the minister of oil.
Sheikh Muhammed said in an interview with Reuters that Bahrain was
in the final stages of negotiations with an advanced company with a
preferential offer to expand its oil refinery. The contract is
expected to be before the end of the year.
Bahrain is also building its first terminal, which will allow it to import LNG for local use. Sheikh
Muhammed said Saudi Aramco was likely to use the plant as part of a
wider scheme to link the Gulf states with a gas pipeline. It is noteworthy that the Bahraini oil minister, announced in
September, the completion of more than 50 per cent of the construction
work and modernization, for the oil pipeline project between Bahrain and
Saudi Arabia.
Al-Khalifa said the project was proceeding in full swing as
planned and budgeted, in order to double the capacity of the current
pipelines, which have been over 70 years old, adding that the pipes are
being buried in southern Bahrain.
The
project aims to replace and change the current pipeline path and
increase the capacity of pipelines from 230,000 to 350,000 barrels per
day. The cost of the project ranges from $ 300-350 million.
Oil will remain the most important commodity in the world, and the
Gulf region, the world's leading strategic location, will continue to
have the largest oil reserves and the highest production rates, the oil
minister said.
He predicted that the price of a barrel of Bahraini oil next year,
to about $ 55, the price estimated for a barrel of oil in the state
budget for the fiscal years 2017 - 2018.
Bahrain is the least oil-rich country in the Gulf Cooperation Council and produces about 200,000 barrels of crude per day.
