Bahrain-based Tatweer Petroleum has invited companies to bid for a contract to develop non-associated gas compression facilities (NCF) in order to increase gas injection at reservoirs to improve oil recovery.

Tatweer Petroleum is a joint venture of Occidental Petroleum, Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Company and state-owned National Oil & Gas Authority of Baharain (Noga).

The deadline to submit bids is 27 November 2019.

In the tender documents, Tatweer said the gas compression facilities are needed “as a long-term solution to meet non-associated gas demand”.

Last month, Oil Minister Mohammed bin Khalifa al-Khalifa said oil investments in Bahrain had reached $8bn over the past few years.

Italy’s Eni is expected to start drilling the first exploratory oil well in the northern maritime block, known as block 1, by the end of 2019 or early next year.

Other blocks are in the evaluation and survey phase, after Noga signed an exploration and production sharing agreement with Eni in June.

At the end of October, Al-Khalifa announced that Noga was studying the development of an aromatics complex in partnership with Petrochemical Industries Company of Kuwait and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic).

The project will cover the construction of a 1.44 million-tonne aromatics plant, which will produce ethylene glycol and ethylene as well as other products.

The aromatics plant will be integrated with the Bapco refinery, which will produce its feedstock.