Bahrain LNG secures funds for import terminal project

Bahrain LNG said it has completed limited recourse financing for the LNG receiving and regasification terminal project.

Bahrain LNG is jointly owned by the Oil and Gas Holding Company (nogaholding) and a consortium consisting of Teekay LNG Partners, Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) and Samsung C&T (Samsung).

A syndicate of nine international and regional banks is participating in the US$741 million loan which has a tenor of 20 years, the project owner and developer, Bahrain LNG said in its statement on Monday.

Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE) provided commercial and political risk cover for approximately 80 percent of the financing. Standard Chartered Bank, Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), and the Korea Development Bank acted as pathfinder banks.

The project was awarded to the Teekay LNG-GIC-Samsung consortium in December 2015 by the National Oil & Gas Authority (NOGA) of Bahrain.

The project is being developed to supplement local gas production in Bahrain and ensure capacity to meet peak seasonal gas demand and industrial growth, the company said.

The project will have a capacity of 800 million standard cubic feet per day and will be owned and, once completed in early 2019, operated under a twenty-year agreement. It 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.

The EPC contract was awarded to GS Engineering & Construction. Teekay LNG will supply the FSU, which will be modified specifically for this project, through a 20-year time-charter agreement.