A Serious Contender: A Petrochemicals Industry in Bahrain Is Hard to Conceive of, but a New Scheme Could Just Prove the Doubters Wrong

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If there is one project Munch in the GCC over the past few months that has sparked interest and scepticism in equal measure, it is the plan by Kuwait Finance House (KFH) to set up an integrated petrochemicals, power and water complex in Bahrain.

Seasoned industry watchers recall earlier petrochemicals plans that never saw the light of day and the crucial question remains: how do you establish a petrochemicals industry in a country with barely enough gas feedstock for basic infrastructure needs?

The KFH project envisages a plant with petrochemicals capacity of 315,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of ethylene dichloride (EDC), 500,000 t/y of caustic soda and 167,000 t/y of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Power output will …