Bahrain Oil Giant Inaugurates Low-Sulfur Project

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--On May 27, The Bahrain Petroleum Company B.S.C. (Bapco) (Awali, Bahrain), Bahrain's state-owned petroleum product-manufacturing firm, launched a refinery gas-desulfurization project (RGDP) at its Sitrah refinery. The $151 million venture is set to be one of the most important environmental projects that the company has undertaken.

The RGDP will lower the level of hydrogen sulfide in fuel gas to less than 150 parts per million. These planned levels are lower than 660 parts per million, which is the official threshold set by government regulations.

Trial commissioning recently began at the RGDP, and Dr. Abdul-Hussain Bin Ali Mirza, who is Bahrain's Oil and Gas Affairs Minister and the chairman of Bahrain's National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA), was reported to have said that the RGDP "is a major step toward the fulfillment of its vision to turn the refinery into one of the environmentally greenest and cleanest in the world."

By utilizing cutting-edge technology to discard sulfur from gases emitted in the refinery process, as well as to expunge contaminants that are released during the process of refining, air quality will be improved with the execution of the RGDP.

Mirza also said that better air and water quality would continue in an ongoing basis, even when some of the units in the RGDP are non-operational during planned shutdowns. According to him, the project has been so designed to provide high levels of dependency, by supplying, in many cases, two units of equipment where normally just one would suffice.

In addition to this, the environmental compliance program comprises other projects, including a plan to manufacture unleaded gasoline, and a procedure to treat kerosene and jet fuel that proves to be more environmentally friendly. Other projects include management of harmful solid waste, facilities for the treatment of wastewater and sewage, and tanks that have been constructed with double seals, in a bid to keep evaporative losses to the ambient atmosphere at a minimum.

The majority of the total environmental compliance projects being planned by Bapco have been brought to fruition. The rest of the projects are nearing completion.

All these projects will establish Bapco as a company that lives up to the environmental standards set forth by Bahrain's government and, to a certain extent, surpasses them. Bapco is reportedly investing more than $440 million in the projects.

Marco Moresco, the chief executive officer of Foster Wheeler Italiana (Milan, Italy), which is the arm of global construction and engineering group Foster Wheeler AG (NASDAQ:FWLT) (Clinton, New Jersey), said that the project involved "300,000 engineering man-hours, 4 million construction man-hours, 3,200 cubic meters of concrete, 2,000 tons of piping material, and 140 kilometers of cables." Foster Wheeler Italiana is the engineering, construction and procurement contractor for the project.

Bapco is involved in the oil industry and engages itself in activities such as oil exploration, drilling and distribution of petroleum and natural gas, among other pursuits.

The 250,000-barrel-per-day refinery has facilities capable of storing more than 14 million barrels, marketing and marine terminals. Bapco's crude oil and refined product services cater to customers in nations ranging from the Middle East and India to the Far East, Southeast Asia, and Africa. The company exports 95% of its products.

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