Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has awarded US-based Bechtel a contract to complete the feasibility study for the upcoming Line 7 project.

Expected to be completed by September 2023, the feasibility study will provide a comprehensive evaluation of all factors to determine the viability of the Line 7 project. It is estimated that the Line 7 project will have a similar production capacity to the Line 6 expansion project – within the range of 540,000 metric tonnes a year.

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) held talks with Bechtel on working together on the proposed Line 7 project in November.

After the meeting, Alba said that the pre-feasibility study for the project had been completed.

In 2020, Alba CEO Ali al-Baqali told MEED that the development of Line 7 might replace older lines.

“We have to do Line 7 in the future and, once we do it, we may have to close the inefficient lines. We have had lines 1 and 2 since 1971, but because they are cash positive, we are keeping them,” he said.

King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa officially inaugurated the Line 6 expansion project at Alba in November 2019.

The 1,400 metre-long reduction Line 6 is one of the longest aluminium lines in the world and comprises 424 reduction cells. It added 540,000 metric tonnes a year (t/y) to Alba’s total production, which now sits above 1.5 million t/y.

US-based Bechtel was the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contractor for Reduction Line 6. The plant uses DX+ Ultra technology from UAE-based Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), which Alba says has enabled it to boost its output with no increase in energy consumption.

The project was delivered ahead of schedule and under budget.