Manama’s Four Seasons hotel hosted a glittering array of movers and shakers from the Middle East’s oil trading scene for S&P’s Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference (MPGC) on 26-28 May. Representatives of oil and gas producers, refiners, and traders all circulated in the hotel’s ballroom and meeting rooms and, while Opec policy, oil prices, and global economic shocks were frequent topics of conversation, the Gulf’s evolution as a refining and trading hub was high on the agenda.
Roughly 15km south of the refined hotel surroundings is Bapco Energies’ 267,000 b/d Sitra refinery, where a $7bn modernization project is nearing completion. This will bring Sitra’s capacity up to 380,000 b/d and also enable it to expand its offering of higher value refined products. Once complete, it will round off approximately 1.42mn b/d of new capacity brought online in the GCC since 2021 and cement the Gulf as a leading hub of modern refining (see table & MEES, 8 November 2024). (CONTINUED - 1080 WORDS)
