A Bapco project to install 7 new Gas Dehydration Units as part of a major Gas Development Program in the Kingdom is progressing well with the arrival of major equipment from fabricators in the Middle East and Asia.

Bapco's Projects Engineering Department is currently executing the project the total cost of which is estimated at USD 74 million to install 7 new Khuff GDUs as well connecting one Khuff gas well, to the Central GDU at the onshore Bahrain Field as part of the 2007 to 2011 Khuff Gas Development Program.

This project is essential as it supplements current Khuff gas supplies to meet increasing gas demand for power generation and other major industries in the Kingdom. It is expected that the project will add 200 million cubic feet per day of natural gas to the required consumption quantity. The project includes receiving packaged, skid mounted GDU units which were fabricated on schedule by UAE based Petreco Process Systems/Cameron.

Major components of the GDUs have also been delivered to Bahrain. Heat exchanger vessels fabricated in Korea and air coolers from Qatar were delivered to Bapco in August 2009. The major consignment that includes the regeneration skids, the absorber columns, air receiver skids and the complete interconnecting piping arrived in early September and is being delivered to the stores/sites in stages due to the heavy loads involved. An extensive plan has been set up in close coordination with all concerned departments and agencies for offloading the equipment from the barge, transporting the units to the different sites and offloading at the various locations.

Foundations for the major equipment have already been constructed at four sites and contracts for constructing the piping works at 4 sites are being awarded. Construction tenders for the interconnecting piping works for the GDU were awarded in the first week of November.

The target is to commission 3 GDUs by summer 2010 followed by the balance four GDUs by summer 2011.