MANAMA, Oct 27 (AFP) - Saudi Arabia has suspended a donation of 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil to Bahrain pending talks on sharing the output of a joint offshore field, a Bahraini official said Wednesday.
Manama and Riyadh are discussing "a new formula for sharing the production of the (Abu Saafa) field after completing expansion work" at a shared cost of 1.2 billion dollars, the official from the ministry of finance and economy told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Bahrain, a small non-OPEC producer, has since 1996 been receiving the entire 143,000 bpd production of the Gulf field, in addition to the 50,000 bpd which were suspended in July, the official said.
He did not explain why Saudi Arabia interrupted the supplies at a time when oil prices have climbed to record highs.
The official made his remarks after local newspapers quoted parliamentary Speaker Khalifa al-Dhahrani as having told MPs about the suspension.
The papers also quoted Finance and Economy Minister Abdullah Hassan Seif as saying that "consultations are under way with Saudi Arabia about oil-related arrangements between the two brotherly countries."
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain had agreed in 1985 to equally share the output of Abu Saafa field, on stream since 1963, each taking 70,000 bpd.
In 1996, Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, relinquished its share to Bahrain, and the two neighbors are now working on doubling the field's output to 300,000 bpd.
Bahrain, which in 1932 became the first Gulf Arab monarchy to produce oil, has seen its reserves plunge and its production drop to 38,000 bpd.
The small Gulf kingdom does not export crude, only refined products from a 250,000 bpd refinery.
10/27/2004 17:59 GMT - AFP