Bahrain Spirit Starts Charter for Bahrain LNG

Bahrain Spirit, Teekay LNG’s first Floating Storage Unit (FSU), has been delivered to charterer Bahrain LNG.

The vessel was delivered from the Korean Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard at the end of August, before going on hire on September 19, 2018.

The vessel will be used to support Bahrain LNG in providing an LNG receiving and regasification terminal in Bahrain.

The project is 30% owned by Teekay LNG Partners (TGP) and is expected to commence commercial operation in early 2019. Aside to Teekay, the project is owned and operated through a joint venture, Bahrain LNG W.L.L., owned by Nogaholding (30%), Samsung (20%) and GIC (20%).

The project is the first of its kind in the Middle East to be developed on a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

It comprises an 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 project will have a capacity of 800 million standard cubic feet per day and will be owned and operated under a twenty-year agreement commencing on July 15, 2018.

Bahrain Spirit was ordered as part of a batch of six LNG carriers.

Five of these 173,400 cubic meter M-type, Electronically Controlled, Gas Injection (MEGI) engine LNG newbuildings are under time-charter contracts with Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell).