Abu Dhabi-owned joint venture Emirates LNG has signed a lease agreement with the government of Fujairah to build its planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and regasification terminal.

The company will lease 260,000 square metres of land adjacent to the Emirates Sembcorp power and desalination plant at Qidfa, on the UAE’s east coast.

The government of Fujairah will also reclaim some land from the sea to construct the regasification terminal capable of handling the largest LNG carriers.

Emirates LNG, a joint venture of Mubadala Petroleum and International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic), will build the project in two stages, with a proposed final capacity of 9 million tonnes a year (t/y) of LNG.

The company hired French group Technip to carry out the front-end engineering and design (feed) work on the scheme. Emirates LNG expects to start the construction later this year after the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract is awarded.