Bahrain's state-owned Bapco Energies expects to commission its Sitra refinery upgrade by the end of this year, said group chief strategy officer Alexander van Veldhoven at the S&P Global Commodity Insights Appec conference in Singapore today.
"We're in the very last phase of that programme," van Veldhoven added, noting that it will boost processing capacity at the Sitra refinery from about 265,000 b/d to just under 400,000 b/d.
"Most units are all up and running, and we are kind of getting close to commissioning the last units in the refinery," he said, specifically highlighting its residual hydrocracker unit (RHCU). Bapco is building a two-train RHCU with a capacity of 65,000 b/d, according to its website. The RHCU will convert 78pc of the vacuum residue feed into intermediate products, which will then be further processed into naphtha, kerosine, and diesel.
Bapco is a key exporter of high-sulphur fuel oil, with average exports at around 150,000-200,000 t/month. But these volumes will likely be removed from the market after the RHCU starts up.
Van Veldhoven also noted that the new set-up of the refinery will "cough out a lot of naphtha", adding that "a logical next step would be aromatics". But he noted that the firm would have to proceed with caution as this would be a big investment, in addition to significant market uncertainty.
Bapco is also looking to markets beyond its usual customers in east Africa and Asia, said Van Veldhoven. "We'd like to go to different markets. We'd like to go further out than just east Africa.
Bapco has also already started its partnership with TotalEnergies to build a larger trading platform, and will make an announcement about that soon, he said.
