State refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has issued a new tender for the provision of liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage and regasification vessel at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery.

Prequalified firms have until 28 May to submit their proposals along with an initial guarantee of KD1.575m ($5.5m).

A pre-tender meeting is planned for 22 April at the administration building of the refinery.

Three firms have been prequalified:

• Excelerate Energy Limited (US)
• Golar LNG (Bermuda)
• Hoegh LNG (Norway)

KNPC originally issued a tender in October 2012 to the same prequalified firms. No reason was given for the re-tender.

The Mina al-Ahmadi gas port was designed and built by Excelerate Energy. Commissioned in August 2009, the facility is Kuwait’s first LNG import terminal and was intended as an interim solution to allow the Gulf state to meet its gas demands while it developed its own domestic resources.

The energy bridge regasification vessel (EBRV) will be designed with a throughput of at least 550 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) during a seven-month regasification season each year, rising to 700 million cf/d at peak demand periods. The facility will also store a minimum of 170,000 cubic metres of gas.