News

This morning his Excellency Dr. Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, Minister of Oil and Gas Affairs and Chairman of the National Oil and Gas Authority, met Mr. Tim Partridge and Mr. Paul Rathbone, Vice Presidents of CRA International, to discuss the findings from their study of the potential for restructuring of the retail fuels business in Bahrain. CRA International is a leading strategy, finance and economics consulting firm headquartered in Boston with offices all around the world, including Bahrain.

After a competitive tender amongst leading consultancy firms, CRA International was appointed as consultant for the study into restructuring of service stations in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Commencing in September 2007, the consultants worked with a steering committee, chaired by NOGA, consisting of representatives from NOGA, BAPCO, MoF and EDB. The scope of work included a review of the current retail fuels industry in Bahrain, benchmarking with other restructuring initiatives in the Middle East and around the world, developing options for achieving the country’s objectives and making recommendations for achieving the desired expansion.

The study identified that there is a significant need to expand the retail fuels network in Bahrain and that an important issue to resolve in achieving that is the availability of land for building new service stations.

His Excellency thanked CRA International and looked forward to submission of their final report. The study will be completed with final recommendations submitted to NOGA during February 2008.