Bahrain's oil exports dropped 16 per cent to 1.985 million metric tons in the first quarter, from 2.353m metric tons during the same period last year.

The reduction was due to routine maintenance work, the National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga) said in its periodic report yesterday.

Work at the raw oil unit was also halted for 10 days to conduct a series of repairs. Diesel shipments made up the bulk topping 723,000 metric tons, down from 882,000 last year.

Fuel oil exports soared by 54,000 metric tons to top 641,000 over the same period.

A total 283,000 metric tons of kerosene was also exported, compared with 323,000 metric tons of naphtha and 15,000 metric tons of petrol.

Noga inspectors searched 71 oil tankers during the period, down from 76 last year, an average of 24 per month.-TradeArabia News Service