Nogaholding: Response to Bapco Pipeline Incident

Nogaholding, the investment and business development arm of Bahrain’s National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) provides the following update in relation to its wholly-owned subsidiary Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco).

On the evening of 10 November, an incident occurred on a Bapco-operated pipeline near the village of Buri which resulted in a fire. The AB3 pipeline is one of three pipelines that supply crude oil from Aramco to the Bapco-operated refinery. Bapco immediately activated its Crisis and Emergency Response Plan and the incident was quickly contained with no injuries sustained and minimal impact to the environment.

Following a short interruption to the supply of crude to enable the incident to be safely addressed, supply to the refinery recommenced via two unaffected pipelines (AB1 and AB2). Repairs to the AB3 line have been completed and, the pipeline capacity is now fully restored.

Commenting on the incident, The Minister of Oil and Chairman of nogaholding and Bapco H.E. Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, said:

“I would like to congratulate Bapco’s Crisis Management Team and Civil Defence for the rapid and safe way in which they responded to this incident. As a result of their swift and effective implementation of a well-rehearsed Emergency Response plan, they were able to contain the incident with minimal impact to the local community and the surrounding environment. The safety of staff and citizens is always of the utmost importance and we are thankful that no injuries occurred as a result of this incident.

The incident caused a minor loss of scheduled production however the supply of crude and other products has returned to pre-incident levels and the management team at Bapco have advised that it is business as normal.

Whilst we believe this was an isolated incident, Bapco is working closely with the government to ensure effective security measures are in place around its assets.”