The 250,000 b/d refinery in Bahrain, a 60-40 venture between Bahrain National Oil Co. and Caltex, will undergo a $500-600 million revamp during the next 5-6 years.
The program will replace a planned $1 billion investment on a deep conversion unit designed to reduce fuel oil yield from the refinery to 3% from the current 26-27%.
Yousef al-Sharawi, Bahrain's minister of development and industry, told Middle East Economic Survey a two stage program, including hydrocracking and possibly coking, will cut fuel oil production to about 10% and provide an overall product yield in line with future requirements.
The minister told MEES the deep conversion project had been dropped because it was too expensive.
In the first stage of the revised project, obsolete crude distillation units will be replaced with a 150,000 b/d plant. This work will be combined with upgrading the refinery infrastructure. Distillation capacity will remain at 250,000 b/d.
In addition to hydrocracking and coking, the second phase will include construction of an alkylation unit and a 30,000-40,000 ton/year methyl tertiary butyl ether plant.
The modernization program will be designed to avoid disruption of production. Front end engineering to define the extent of the project is under way, and construction could begin within 12 months.
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