National Oil & Gas Authority of Bahrain (NOGA) has awarded a contract to Netherlands-based Smit Lamnalco for the supply of marine services to the under-construction Bahrain LNG terminal.

Smit Lamnalco will deploy four liquefied natural gas (LNG)-terminal compliant, 70-tonne-bollard pull tugs to provide escort, berthing and unberthing services to LNG carriers serving the new import terminal.

Smit Lamnalco will develop support infrastructure for the project over the next 20 years, initially employing four tugs from its existing fleet. These will be replaced in year five of the contract with four brand new purpose-built tugs that will operate in Bahrain for the following 15 years.

The Bahrain LNG import terminal is a build, own, operate, transfer (Boot) project, with ownership of the terminal reverting to NOGA after 20 years of operations.

The terminal combines offshore and onshore facilities, with the former sited approximately 5 kilometres east of Khalifa bin Salman port, the location of the main onshore facilities.

South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction is the main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the Bahrain LNG project.

The terminal has been developed to protect gas supplies to the Kingdom of Bahrain, supplementing domestic gas production from ageing reserves.

The LNG terminal is jointly owned by Nogaholding, the investment and development arm of Bahrain’s National Oil & Gas Authority (Noga), and a consortium consisting of Teekay LNG Partners, Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) and Samsung C&T (Samsung).