Construction of Bahrain LNG import terminal completed

Mechanical construction and commissioning of the first LNG import terminal in Bahrain has been completed, according to owner Bahrain LNG WLL (BLNG)

Developed under a public-private partnership, the Bahrain LNG import terminal is located offshore approximately 4 km east of the onshore receiving facility at the Khalifa Bin Salman Port. The terminal will make the Kingdom of Bahrain the 43rd country to import LNG.

BLNG is sending out the last of the commissioning LNG cargo to allow the 173,000-m³ floating storage unit (FSU) Bahrain Spirit to be redeployed on short‐term trade basis. The customer had commenced payments to BLNG under its 20-year terminal use agreement in early January 2020.

BLNG also reported that the customer is looking forward to commencing commercial operations at the terminal, which will have a capacity of 800M standard cubic feet per day (mscfd).

Built by South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering in 2018 and chartered to BLNG, Teekay LNG’s Bahrain Spirit has an overall length of 294.9 m, beam of 46.8 m and flies the Bahraini flag.

Besides Bahrain Spirit, the other components of the regas terminal are 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. The main contractor for the project was South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction.

Depending on the seasonal requirements for regasification services by the terminal, BLNG may trade the Bahrain Spirit FSU in the short-term LNG shipping market. Regardless of the deployment strategy, BLNG will receive its full contractual payments from the customer of the terminal, and Teekay LNG will continue to receive its full, fixed-rate charter-hire for the Bahrain Spirit FSU from BLNG.

Bahraini Minister of Oil Mohamed bin Khalifa Al‐Khalifa said the Bahrain LNG receiving and regasification terminal was of “strategic importance to the energy sector of the Kingdom of Bahrain.”

Joint shareholders in Bahrain LNG are the National Oil and Gas Holding Company (30%) Teekay LNG (30%), Gulf Investment Corporation (24%) and Samsung C&T Corporation (16%).