MANAMA: Oil production and refinery capacity have significantly increased during the first three quarters of this year, National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga) announced yesterday.
Oil and Gas Affairs Minister and Noga chairman Dr Abdulhussain Mirza said the kingdom has achieved positive results, especially production level of the refinery which reached a daily rate of 271,000 barrels, exceeding the refining capacity of 250,000 barrels.
Gas production rose by 113 million cubic feet daily during January to September, an increase of 8.5 per cent compared to the same period last year.
The minister said the Abu Saafa field exports have increased by 2.5pc from last year to reach 41.461m barrels.
Gas production increased by 5.8pc to reach 32.22 billion cubic feet.
This production is fully consumed locally by power stations, industries and injection wells.
The minister also spoke on the positive results achieved by oil companies.
Banagas achieved an increase of 3.6pc in production.
The Bahrain Aviation Fuelling Company (Bafco) achieved an increase of 15pc and the production of Gulf Petrochemicals Industries Company (GPIC) increased by 5.5pc.
The report showed that the crude oil production of the Bahrain Field amounted to 8.992m barrels with a daily rate of 32,818 barrels.
This means a decrease of 5.4pc. The drop is normal due to the fact that the Bahrain Field is the oldest in the GCC.
Noga seeks to maintain the production of the field, discovered in 1932, and works on the injection of its wells for the continuity of production.
Efforts are also underway for tenders to increase the production of the field.
The crude oil production of the Abu Saafa field amounted to 41.063m at a daily rate of 149,867 barrels.
This is compared to 40.917m barrels for the same period last year.
Crude oil imports went up to 41,.461m barrels, compared to 40.454m from the same period last year.
Crude oil imported from Saudi Arabia came up to 64.095m barrels compared to 61.505m last year, an increase of 4.2pc.
The daily rate of imported crude oil reached almost 234,000 barrels.
As for crude oil pumped to the refinery, the overall total came up to 73.078m barrels.
The daily rate pumped to the refinery reached 267,000 barrels. The figure from last year was 258,000 barrels.
The refinery production amounted to 74.288m barrels, compared to 72.381m last year, an increase of 3pc. The daily rate was 271,000 barrels, exceeding the capacity by 8.4pc.
Regarding the imports of petroleum extracts, the overall rate reached 62.813m barrels while the daily rate reached 229,246 barrels, compared to 249,483 barrels for the same period last year.
Local sales of petroleum products reached 6.754m barrels compared to 6.18m during the same period last year.
The diesel had the biggest share of local consumption. It came up to 34pc of the total of local sales.
Noga is keen on reviewing consumption of diesel due to price variation. Diesel prices in Bahrain are considered the lowest in the region.
Bahrain-produced diesel is known for its high quality and compliance with international standards.
Mumtaz and Jayyid petrol formed 30pc and 23pc of local consumption respectively. The remaining 13 pc is shared by liquefied gas, kerosene, aviation fuel and asphalt.
As for the production of natural and accompanying gas, the amount reached 408.479bn cubic feet compared to 376.259bn cubic feet last year.
The daily production rate reached 1.491bn cubic feet, compared to 1.378bn cubic feet last year.
