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Bahrain Petroleum Co to seek $600 mln bank loans

MANAMA: State-owned Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) plans to borrow up to $600 million from banks to help modernise its ageing oil refinery, an industry official said on Saturday.

"BAPCO will be borrowing up to $600 million from banks for refinery modernisation," the industry official told Reuters.

"The current plan is that the company will go to banks in the second half of May," the official, who is closely following the project, added.

BAPCO, which runs a 250,000-barrel per day (bpd) refinery, earlier this year merged with Bahrain National Oil Company which is responsible for domestic oil production and distribution.

Among BAPCO's modernisation plans is a $400 million project to reduce the amount of sulphur in its diesel oil to 0.05 percent from the current figure of around 0.5 percent.

It also plans to upgrade its catayltic reformer and other facilities to produce unleaded gasoline at a cost of $7 million.

Bahrain, a small and independent oil producer, pumps around 40,000 bpd from its own oilfields and receives the entire output of around 140,000 bpd from an offshore field it shares with Saudi Arabia.

It also buys another 200,000 bpd of Saudi Arabian crude for refining at its plant, which was built in 1936.-Reuters