Bahrain has awarded a consortium of three companies the contract to develop a $655m floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Bahrain.

US-based Teekay LNG Partners, South Korea’s Samsung C&T and Kuwaiti group Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) were awarded the contract by Oil and Gas Holding Company (Nogaholding).

The project will be developed on a build, own, operate, transfer (BOOT) basis and is located in the Hidd industrial area of Bahrain.

The companies formed a new joint venture named Bahrain LNG with Nogaholding and Teekay both owning 30 per cent stakes, with respective 20 per cent stakes held by Samsung C&T and GIC.

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

South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction was selected as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the project. Teekay will supply the floating storage unit vessel to be modified specifically for the project.

The project will comprise the FSU, an offshore LNG receiving jetty and breakwater, an adjacent regasification platform, subsea gas pipelines from platform to shore, an onshore gas receiving facility and an onshore nitrogen production facility.

The terminal will have the capacity of 800 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) and will be owned and operated under a 20-year agreement starting on 15 July 2018. This is twice the capacity that was initially anticipated.

Teekay said that the project, not including the FSU, project management and development, financing and other costs, is expected to cost approximately $655m, which will be funded through a combination of equity capital and project finance through a consortium of regional and international banks.

Nogaholding tendered the contract in the third quarter of 2014 and companies submitted bids at the start of 2015.

Bahrain is the latest of several countries in the Middle East and North Africa (LNG) to prepare to import LNG in order to meet rising gas demand. Other countries that are building or have built LNG import infrastructure include the UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.