Bahrain says refinery fire from Iran strike has been contained
6 March 2026
A fire that broke out at the Sitra refinery in Bahrain after an Iranian missile strike has been contained, according to a statement from the country’s National Communication Centre (NCC).
Verified videos of the attack show flames springing up almost immediately after a missile hits the complex.
The videos also seem to show a second missile hitting another location at the site moments later, and then several columns of dark smoke coming from different parts of the refinery.
The NCC said: “A fire broke out at a unit of the Bapco Energies refinery following an Iranian missile strike. The fire has been fully contained.”
It added: “There are no reported injuries, and refinery operations continue. An assessment of the damage is currently under way."
Iran has been firing missiles at a range of targets in nearby countries since it was attacked by the US and Israel on 28 February.
In November last year, MEED reported that Bahrain’s state-owned Bapco Energies was in the final stages of ramping up volumes processed by new units that were installed as part of the Bapco Modernisation Programme (BMP).
The project at the Sitra refinery in Bahrain is estimated to have been worth $7bn and was inaugurated by Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa in December 2024.
At the time, the companies involved in the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project were still working on the site to assist with efforts to increase volumes.
Bapco Energies awarded the main $4.2bn contract to perform EPC works on the BMP to a consortium led by France’s Technip Energies in February 2018.
The consortium also included Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas and South Korea’s Samsung E&A.
Technip Energies also performed the project’s front-end engineering and design work. US oil and gas producer Chevron acted as a consultant on the BMP, while Australia-based Worley was the project management consultant.
In March 2024, after a series of setbacks and delays, France’s Total Energies was brought in to support Bapco in “optimising” the project.
The BMP is central to Bahrain’s Vision 2030 economic development strategy, and Bapco has said that it is crucial to boosting the country’s long-term downstream potential.
The BMP was originally expected to reach mechanical completion in 2023, with operations set to begin in 2024.
The core objective of the BMP was to upgrade the Sitra refinery – Bahrain’s only oil refining asset, which is 90 years old.
One of the key units to be built as part of the BMP was a residual hydrocracking unit (RHCU) powered by technology licensed from US-based Chevron Lummus Global. The BMP team has built a two-train RHCU with a capacity of 65,000 barrels a day.
The Sitra refinery includes seven crude distillation units (CDUs) and vacuum distillation units (VDUs) as part of the BMP.
The new 225,000 b/d integrated crude and vacuum unit replaced CDUs 1, 2 and 3 and VDUs 1 and 3, which had served Bapco Energies for over 80 years.
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