Mubasher: Bahrain has plans to sell and trade more petroleum products in the GCC region and Asia in line with its intention to commission the expanded oil refinery by early 2023, the CEO of oil company Bapco Pete Bartlett told Reuters.

Expanding Bahrain’s oil refinery is forecast to boost the capacity of its Sitra oil refinery to 360,000 barrels per day (bpd) instead of the current 267,000 bpd, Bapco CEO said, according to Reuters.

It is worth noting that the state-owned Bapco currently receives a range from 220,000 to 230,000 bpd of crude from state oil company Saudi Aramco, with plans to import the same volume during the refinery’s expansion, with commissioning scheduled for late 2022 or early 2023, Bartlett said, Reuters added.

“In October 2018, Aramco and Bapco announced the commissioning of the AB-4, a new phase of the Saudi-Bahrain crude oil pipeline, capable of transporting up to 350,000 bpd, which would serve Bahrain’s planned refinery expansion,” according to Reuters.