Bahrain Petroleum Company

History

The BAPCO was established in 1929 in Canada by Standard Oil Company of California for oil exploration activities in Bahrain. It took over Bahrain's assets of Gulf Oil. In 1930 it obtained the only oil concession in Bahrain. On 31 May 1932, the company discovered the Awali oil field. In 1936 the Standard Oil Company of California signed an agreement with Texaco, which acquired a half of BAPCO's shares.

In 1975 more than 60% BAPCO's shares was acquired by the Government of Bahrain. In 1980, all BAPCO's shares were taken over by the Government of Bahrain. In 1999 the current Bahrain Petroleum Company was created when the Bahrain National Oil Company, established in 1976, merged with BAPCO.

Operations

BAPCO is an integrated oil company operating in the field of exploration, drilling, production, refining, and marketing. It operates a 260,000-barrel-per-day (41,000 m³/d) oil refinery which lies midway between the original BAPCO expat workers accommodation township of Awali and Sitra. The complex also includes storage facilities for 14 million barrels (2.2×10^⁶ m³), a marketing terminal, and a marine terminal. About one-sixth of this crude originates from Bahrain Field, with the remainder being pumped from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco supplies approximately 235,000 barrels per day (37,400 m³/d) through the 62-kilometre (39 mi) Abqaiq–Dhahran Pipelines System. A new pipeline has been proposed to be constructed from Aramco's Abqaiq Plant to Qurayyah utilising an existing pipeline corridor, then offshore to Bahrain, and finally on a newly defined route to the Bapco Refinery.