Bahrain Mirror: The Al-Bilad local Bahraini newspaper, owned by the Prime Minister's son Ali bin Khalifa, said that the Bahraini Ministry of Energy intends to invest $7.5 billion to expand Bahrain's refinery, construct a port to receive liquefied gases, expand the petrochemicals, replace the oil pipelines and dig wells within 4 and 10-year plans.

The newspaper further stated that "the development projects include increasing the refinery capacities from 260,000 barrels to 360,000 daily, increasing the production of high-value petroleum products, reducing the rate of fuel oil, increasing the availability of gasoline, improving the energy efficiency and implementing an economic and environmental initiative within an estimated cost of $5 billion over a period of 10 years."

The Ministry of Energy along with the competent parties will construct a port of liquefied gas to import gas, aiming at facilitating receiving normal liquefied gas in the kingdom. The estimated cost of the project is $450 million and will be executed over a period of 4 years.

It also stated that the "Urea and Ammonia factory will be established in the Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company, aiming at producing 2,200 tons of Ammonia and 3,600 tons of Urea daily, with an estimated cost of $1.7 billion over 4 years. Detailed studies for the project have been prepared."

The Ministry of Energy added that "the government dug 22 wells on the offshore areas between 1972 and 2012. The Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) has also dug 4 exploratory wells in 2014 and 4 others between 1960 and 1996. 30 exploratory wells have been dug in the offshore and land areas."

The cost of Khuff gas production is estimated to be 25 cents for every million British thermal units (BTU). However, the cost of deep gas production is estimated to be less than $1 for every million BTUs.

The ministry also said that the capacity of the pipes extended over 115 Km distance will be increased from 230,000 barrels to 350,000 daily with an estimated cost of S350 million.

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