Bahrain and neighbour Saudi Arabia will look into expanding an oil pipeline connecting the two countries, a senior Bahraini official said in remarks published on Sunday.

The countries plan to expand the oil pipeline capacity to 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 235,000 bpd, Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) chief executive Abdulkarim al-Sayed told local newspaper Al Watan.

The project was likely to cost between $300 million and $350 million, Sayed said. The company contracted to study the proposal will advise on the project and prepare a preliminary engineering report on the route of the pipeline and its size, he said.

Bahrain plans a $2 billion expansion of its Sitra refinery, to boost capacity to around 360,000 bpd beyond 2016 from around 260,000 bpd. The expansion depends on obtaining increased supplies from Saudi Arabia through the pipeline.

Output at the Sitra refinery stood at around 271,000 bpd in the first nine months of the year, Oil Minister Abdul-Hussain Ali Mirza said in comments published in local paper Gulf Daily News on Sunday.

That was slightly above nameplate capacity. Bahrain's share of output from the Abu Saafa oilfield stood at around 149,867 bpd in the first nine months of the year, Mirza said.

Saudi Arabia pumps Bahrain's share of the oil from Abu Saafa through the pipeline. Bahrain also buys Arab Light crude from its neighbour to process at the Sitra refinery.

Bahrain's gas production rose 5.8 per cent to 32.22 billion cu ft during the first nine months, the minister said.

Production at Bahrain's onshore Awali oil field, the first oil find on the Arab side of the Gulf in 1932, dropped 5.4 per cent to 32,818 bpd during the same period, Mirza said.

The Gulf Arab state plans to double output at the Awali field by bringing in international oil companies to tap deeper layers of oil.-Reuters