Bahrain National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga) is set to award the contract to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal, according to an executive from the authority.

Several companies have submitted bids on a build, operate,transfer (BOT) contract on the project, which will be constructed near Khalifa bin Salman Port and is expected to start receiving deliveries of LNG by ships by the first quarter of 2018.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Apicorp Energy Forum in Bahrain on 19 November, Nogaholding general manager for investments, Qaisar Zaman, told MEED the contract will be awarded “soon”.

Nogaholding is the business and investment arm of Noga.

Bahrain is currently struggling with a shortage of gas that has weighed on the country’s plans for industrial expansion.

It is hoped that the LNG terminal will ease the country’s gas shortage until projects to increase domestic production of gas over the long term are completed.

The facility will be fixed, but will have floating storage and an expected capacity of 400 million cubic feet a day (cf/d).

The scope of work includes the construction of floating gas storage, a ship-unloading system, LNG storage tanks, a regasification and send-out system, marine works, a jetty and other associated works.

Bahrain has been planning a LNG terminal for several years, but the plans stalled after the 2011 protests.