A consortium led by France-US petroleum services group TechnipFMC has secured a $4.2 billion (3.5 billion euro) contract to extend capacity at Bahrain's Sitra refinery, the company said yesterday.

The contract, awarded by Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco), will extend production capacity at the site on Sitra island in the Gulf of Bahrain from a current 267,000 to 360,000 barrels per day, TechnipFMC said. The refinery exports some 95 percent of its current production, mainly to India and the Far East. The consortium includes South Korea's refinery and electrical plants designer Samsung Engineering as well as Spanish petroleum engineering firm Tecnicas Reunidas, TechnipFMC said, adding construction should be completed by 2022.

Bahrain was the first Arab Gulf state to produce oil, in 1932, but its reserves have all but dried up and the Sunni Muslim kingdom depends primarily on the Abu Safa field it shares with Saudi Arabia for its own supplies which are pumped via a 230,000 bpd capacity subsea pipeline.