Pumping up the volume: in Bahrain
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Bahrain output booster plans on table
Gulf Arab state Bahrain plans to start an overhaul of the Bahrain oilfield by the end of the year, its top oil official said today.
Bahrain has created a joint-venture with US independent Occidental Petroleum and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala which will eventually triple output from the Bahrain field to about 100,000 barrels per day.
"The company was established two weeks ago, the hand-over (of the field) will be at the end of the year or early next year, that's when they will start," Abdul-Hussain bin Ali Mirza, head of the National Oil & Gas Authority (NOGA), told Reuters.
The field's current production capacity stands at about 33,000 bpd.
Mirza said 3600 development wells will be drilled at the field over the next 20 years.
He said Oxy would start drilling exploration wells at three off-shore blocks the company was awarded in 2007, in December of this year or in January 2010.
He said Thailand's PTT Exploration & Production will start drilling at the one block it was awarded during the second half of next year.
Mirza also said a study carried out by Shell on the feasibility of importing liquidified natural gas had been positive.
"The results show some positive indications on having LNG as a back-up," he said.
He said NOGA was now studying whether a floating or an onshore regasification facility was most suitable for Bahrain.
Like other Gulf Arab states, gas consumption in Bahrain is growing at a fast pace as the country is diversifying its economy. It consumed 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas per day in 2007 and expects consumption to rise to 2 Bcfd in about 10 years.
It has also held talks with Gulf neighbours Qatar and Iran about gas imports to meet the rise in consumption.