Bahrain’s National Oil & Gas Authority (Noga) and The Oil and Gas Holding Company (nogaholding) on Wednesday signed project agreements for the development of an LNG receiving and regasification terminal in the kingdom with a consortium of Canada’s Teekay LNG Partners (Teekay LNG), South Korea’s Samsung C&T (Samsung) and the Gulf Investment Cooperation (GIC). 

 

The project will comprise a floating storage unit (FSU), an offshore LNG receiving jetty and breakwater, an adjacent regasification platform, subsea gas pipelines from the platform to shore, an onshore gas receiving facility, and an onshore nitrogen production facility. 

 

It will have an initial capacity of 400 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) (expandable to 800 mmscfd) and will be owned and operated under a twenty-year agreement commencing on July 15, 2018.

 

The project, not including the FSU to be time chartered from Teekay LNG, project management and development, financing and other costs, is expected to cost approximately BD250 million ($658 million), which will be funded through a consortium of regional and international banks.

 

The project, to be developed on a BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer) basis, will be located in Hidd Industrial area of Bahrain and will help the kingdom meet the increasing demand for gas supplies to satisfy its industrial and urban development.

 

The LNG terminal will be owned and operated by Bahrain LNG WLL, a new joint venture owned 30 per cent by nogaholding and 70 per cent by the consortium of Teekay LNG, Samsung and the GIC.

 

The winning consortium selected GS Engineering & Construction as the EPC contractor of the project. Teekay LNG will supply the FSU vessel through a twenty (20) year time-charter to the joint venture. 

 

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Dr Abdul-Hussain bin Ali Mirza, the Minister of Energy said: “The LNG terminal will form a vital part of the energy infrastructure of Bahrain – it will give the country security of supply that it needs to meet its growth in demand for natural gas to fuel large industrial projects, to generate power and water and for enhanced oil recovery.”

 

“Gas demand is rising and we foresee that gas demand will increase significantly going forward as new industrial projects in the pipeline are developed. In the period 2011 to 2014, gas demand in Bahrain rose at an average rate in excess of 2.5 per cent per annum and 95 per cent of that increase was sourced from the Khuff gas field. It is imperative that Bahrain provides itself with an option to access competitive and economic gas supplies from the global market.  The LNG terminal provides Bahrain with that option, giving it both an insurance policy in case of potential shortages of gas and the ability to supplement domestic gas supplies with gas from LNG,” he said.

 

Dr Mirza concluded: “I wish to express my sincere gratitude for the achievements in the oil and gas sector witnessed in the areas of modernisation and development under the prosperous era of His Majesty the King of Bahrain and the esteemed government chaired by His Royal Highness the Prime Minister and supported by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister. We also express our sincere thanks to the wise leadership for their constant support for the progress made in this vital sector and for continued encouragement which enables us to achieve one of its long term strategic objectives.”-TradeArabia News Service