Saudi-Bahraini oil pipeline to be ready in early 2018

The crude oil pipeline project between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain is likely to be completed in early 2018, Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported on Tuesday, citing oil minister Shaikh Mohammed Al Khalifa.

The cost of the new pipeline will be lower than expected, amid a decline in steel prices and high competition among pipeline manufacturers.

The route of the new pipeline will see no change, Al Khalifa added on the sidelines of an industry event.

In 2015, state-owned Saudi Aramco and Bahrain Petroleum Co. (Bapco) signed a deal to begin construction of a $300 million pipeline between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to supply Bapco’s refinery with crude oil.

The oil pipeline, which will have a capacity of 360,000 barrel a day (bbl), is to replace the existing AB-1 oil pipeline, which provides Bapco’s Sitra Refinery with feedstock crude oil.

The 115-kilometre project will run from the Abqaiq processing facility in Saudi Arabia to Quarriyah and then offshore to Al-Jazayir beach and finally to Sitra in Bahrain. Nearly 73 kilometers (km) of the pipeline will be onshore, while the remaining 42km will be offshore. The old pipeline will be removed from service in mid-2018.