Bahrain LNG, the developer of the country’s first floating natural gas terminal, has secured a $741 million loan which has a tenor of 20 years from a syndicate of nine international and regional banks.

The banking syndicate includes Apicorp, Standard Chartered Bank DIFC, Korea Development Bank, Ahli United Bank, Banco Santander, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, ING Bank, Natixis, and Société Générale.

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

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).

The project was awarded to the Teekay LNG-GIC-Samsung consortium in December 2015 by the National Oil & Gas Authority (Noga) of Bahrain following an international competitive tendering process.

The project will have a capacity of 800 million standard cu ft 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 twenty (20) year time-charter agreement.

Shaikh Mohamed bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, Minister of Oil, said: “The Bahrain LNG Import Terminal is a key component of our plans for the further expansion of the energy and related sectors of the Kingdom of Bahrain.  The achievement of financial close is a critical milestone in the continued development of the Bahrain LNG Import Terminal Project and we congratulate the sponsors, their supporting lenders and K-SURE on their achievement after many months of sustained effort.” – TradeArabia News Service