‘No Sitra decision’

A decision has not yet been made on whether to expand Bahrain’s oil refinery in Sitra, a top government official said.

A $5 billion investment would upgrade the refinery by increasing its capacity from 260,000 barrels per day to 360,000 barrels per day, but the government has not yet made a decision on that, it has emerged.

Speaking on the sidelines of a renewable energy conference, World Future Energy Summit, in Abu Dhabi Minister of Energy Dr. Abdulhussain Mirza said that the government is awaiting feedback from a group of experts before any decision is made.

“We have done the Feed (Front End Engineering Design) and it is being done by Technip, and should be ready by the end of the first quarter this year. We have appointed the project management contractor, and they will be working on this and they will send us detailed feedback and a decision will be made on how to proceed further. That means we have gone a long way on the preparation,” Gulf News quoted him as saying.

He also discussed how the government is reviewing subsidies as a way of cutting costs. “We are looking at all types of subsidies, which is the same thing all the Gulf States are doing. Bahrain is already impacted by the reduction in oil prices because 86 per cent of the government revenues are from oil and gas, so when [prices] go down by 70pc it means all the Gulf states are affected,” he added.