LNG port to open by year-end: Oil Minister

The ongoing construction and development works of Bahrain’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) port will be completed by end 2018, confirmed Oil Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa. The USD741 million new port, Minister said, with a capacity of 800 million cubic feet a day by next year and operated by the National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA), has crossed 90 per cent completion.

The port consists of a floating storage unit, a seaport and an LNG delivery terminal, in addition to an LNG liquefaction platform, underwater pipelines to transport gas from the platform to the shore, a landfill facility and a nitrogen processing plant. As per the deal, Shaikh Mohammed explained that the port is the property of Bahrain LNG WLL and is a joint project of the Oil and Gas Holding Company (30pc) and the consortium of companies Teekay LNG, Samsung and the Gulf Investment Corporation (70pc).

The project, implemented under the BOOT system within the Khalifa bin Salman Port facility in Hidd Industrial Area, aims to support Bahrain’s domestic gas production to meet growing demand for gas and to obtain LNG at competitive rates.

A consortium of nine regional and international banks financed the USD741 million project for a period over 20 years. Korean commercial insurance company has covered nearly 80pc of the risks of financing, while Standard Chartered Bank and the Korean Development Bank are consulting firms.

The project aims at increasing the gas resources in Bahrain, as Bahrain’s entire gas production goes for power generation as well as industrial production. According to the annual report of NOGA, Bahrain’s natural gas production grew by 2.9pc to reach 514, 389 billion cubic feet in 2017 compared to 499, 884 billion cubic feet in 2016.

However, the figures showed that Bahrain’s production of associated gas decreased by 0.11pc to 243, 641 billion cubic feet in 2017, compared to 243, 919 billion cubic feet in 2016.