Bahrain has reportedly stepped up talks with Qatar Petroleum (QP) and ExxonMobil, on the possibility of importing up to 500 million cubic feet per day of natural gas from Qatar’s giant offshore North Field.

While the talks have been going on for many years, recent months have seen both sides in the proposed deal trying to push negotiations ahead, with the expectation that a final agreement will be concluded, according to a report in the Middle East Economic Survey (Mees).
The gas would be transported to Bahrain via a sub-sea pipeline, the report said. Over recent years there has been speculation that Bahrain might receive Qatari gas from a spur line coming out of the planned pipeline running from the North Field to Kuwait.
But progress on that project has been delayed by a diplomatic dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, says Mees.
Saudi has so far not responded to requests for permission to allow the proposed pipeline to pass through its territorial waters and continental shelf.
Bahrain is also exploring the possibility of importing natural gas from Iran - again via a sub-sea pipeline. Bahrain’s efforts to seek regional sources of natural gas for import are the result of a strategic policy decision.
While the country has comfortable natural gas reserves, these will be kept for essential use - basically for power generation and water desalination.
“Since gas is available in plentiful volumes in the countries around us, we have decided to import it for the expansion plans of other industrial needs - Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) and petrochemicals,” a Bahrain government official told Mees.
Bapco, meanwhile, has this year started a programme that takes place every four years to drill new wells and carry out workovers on existing ones, to boost Khuff production to meet rising local demand and guarantee strategic reserves.
Between now and 2006, four new wells will be drilled in the onshore Awali field, while two will be re-worked and further work will be carried out on another two. At present, Bahrain’s natural gas production is averaging around 1.18 billion cfd, with 70 per cent of it free gas and 30 per cent associated.