Plan to import electricity through GCC electricity interconnection grid

Muhammad Azam/DTNN
Manama

Bahrain has a sizeable oil and gas reserves base and there is no need to worry about as far as energy needs are concerned for a long time to come, said Energy Minister Dr. Abdul Hussain Mirza on Tuesday, June 30, 2015.

In an interview with DT News, he said that Bahrain oil field had produced so far only a small percentage of its original oil in place (OOIP) and had a long way to go. “However, the later production from the field will be more difficult and more costly,” he added.

Dr. Mirza said that in order to increase the recovery and oil production from the Bahrain field National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) had signed an agreement with OXY and Mubadallah in 2009. “Currently, oil production from the Bahrain field is around 55,000 BOPD, which represents an incremental increase of more than 70 per cent, compared to the production level back in 2010,” informed Dr Mirza.

The Energy Minister said that the Bahrain gas field was currently producing around 1,300 million cubic feet of nonassociated gas and around 600 million cubic feet of associated gas per day. “The actual production capacity of non-associated gas is currently much higher than the average daily demand,” he added.

Dr Mrza revealed that there was also a plan to import electricity through the GCC electricity interconnection grid. Responding to a query on the national energy challenges Bahrain faces today, Dr Mirza said that Bahrain is a developing country with strong industrial base and fast growing population and like other developing nations it also had a number of energy challenges.

He remarked that balancing the supply with the energy growing demand was a big challenge as most of the supply initiatives require three to five years to fruit into actual supply input. Dr Mrza cited that financing was also a big challenge as energy projects involved heavy investments that require medium to longterm financing. He added that their success would largely depend on their ability to change the culture of the society toward energy utilization and conservation.