Nicosia, May 9 The Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), which wholly owned by the government of Bahrain, has just completed the feasibility studies for four to five projects expected to cost five billion dollars.

BAPCO is involved in oil prospecting, drilling, production and distribution, sales and exports of petroleum products, natural gas and refined products. It also has storage facilities for more than 14 million barrels, a marine and a marketing terminal.

One of the projects is to increase the refining capacity of the company's refinery from the current level of 250,000 barrels a day to 350,000 barrels a day.

Another project is to expand and replace oil pipelines linking Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, with the aim of increasing the flow of oil by 115,000 barrels a day.

The plan will also study the feasibility of using Bapco's refinery for oil jointly produced by Bahrain and Saudi Arabia at the Abu Safa field, instead of directly exporting the crude oil to Bapco's customers in the Middle East, India, the Far and South East and Africa.

Company officials say that the initial studies of the project will be completed by the end of this year, or the beginning of 2010. (ANI)