EmiratesLNG, a joint venture between UAE state-controlled International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and Mubadala Petroleum, will start output from a yet-to-be-built liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility by mid-2018.

"It's a strategic project for this country and we are moving forward with it," Musabbeh al-Kaabi, chief executive officer of Mubadala Petroleum, told reporters on the sidelines of an energy event in Abu Dhabi.

The results of a tender to build the facility, which will be located at the busy oil port of Fujairah, will be announced in early 2015.

Once complete, the terminal will be capable of supplying an average of 1.2 billion standard cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas per day to the UAE.

Dubai already imports LNG through ports in the Gulf, and the UAE gets a modest volume of Qatari gas by pipeline, which helps feed power and desalination plants at Fujairah.

Building an LNG import terminal outside the Strait of Hormuz reduces the risk that the UAE's supplies could be affected by problems in the vital oil and gas shipping lane, which neighbouring Iran threatened to block two years ago.-Reuters