Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) lost BD6 million ($15.9 million) during the recent unrest, Energy Minister Dr Abdulhussain Mirza has confirmed.

But he told MPs the company managed to limit the impact of the disruption on its performance and ensured it fulfilled its obligations to local and international markets. Dr Mirza also said the ministry had co-operated fully with the parliament probe into the company's absenteeism rate.

'We were presented with 62 questions that needed answers in a record time with professionalism and parliament was presented with 2,443 pages divided on 10 files,' he said.

'Bapco's approaches during the unrest were successful considering that oil extracts, gas and electricity supplies never stopped for local or international consumers. The Bahrain Oil Field continued its production at a constant acceptable rate and it shows that the company's 80-year-old emergency plan is efficient as always.'

Dr Mirza said Bapco's chairman and board successfully managed to thwart the plot by those trying to damage the company's performance and production.

He also said it had already dismissed those absent from work during the unrest.

'Demanding the dismissal of the chairman and board members is unconstitutional and parliament has no right to demand this especially with MPs knowing that we have done huge work to make things right,' he said.

Dr Mirza said the company chairman and board had no control over the personal wrongdoings of staff, saying he directed executive management to punish those involved.

He said arrangements had already been made with the Cabinet when Bahrain announced the State of National Safety to resolve any problems that the unrest caused within the company.

'We worked to gain confidence in the company, comforted our international partners, protected the country's insurance grading and replied to negative comments in the Press, which were mostly untrue,' he said.

'There were no intentions to mislead the leadership or cover up the situation in Bapco caused by a few - we just wanted to protect the company from anything that may have damaged its reputation.

'During that time we made arrangements for the safe transfer of our raw materials and products in and out of the company in co-operation with the Interior Ministry, ordered investigations against violating employees and assessed administrative and financial procedures in the company.'

Dr Mirza said only five per cent of the company's revenue had been affected by the unrest.

'We only lost BD6 million during the unrest and this shows that our policies are strong and can cope with any threat even with maximum attendance being around 40 per cent in the worst days,' he said.

Dr Mirza said all pensioners on temporary contracts had seen their employment status terminated.

'We are currently improving the structure of our health facilities and the employment of staff in them,' he said.

'A grievance committee has already existed for decades for employees to complain to.'

Dr Mirza said staff had already been instructed to only speak in Arabic and English. 'Accusations that the board speaks in Persian are unacceptable considering that we don't have many Persian speaking people in it,' he said.-TradeArabia News Service