US engineering firm Foster Wheeler has confirmed its contract for the design of an onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) import and regasification terminal at Al-Zour, for state-refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC).

The front-end engineering and design (Feed) of the facility is scheduled to be completed in October.  

MEED reported in late November that Foster Wheeler been awarded the gas import design deal, but it has only now been confirmed.

Kuwait has been importing LNG at a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) at the Ahmadi gas port, near the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery, since late 2009.

KNPC hopes to begin operations at the new terminal in 2020, importing 1.5 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas. The facility has four storage tanks, each with the capacity to store 25.4 million cubic feet (720,000 cubic metres). The design will also allow for future expansion up to 3 billion cf/d, along with the addition of four more 180,000 cubic metre tanks.