Dubai Supply Authority (Dusup) confirmed in April that it plans to import LNG using a floating regassification facility. The gas will be used to supplement the emirate's existing supplies of gas during peak demand in the summer.

It has selected the UK/Dutch Shell to advise it and project manage the development phase.

Shell will also be the main LNG supplier and will continue to provide advice to Dusup once the facility is completed in 2010. Shell will source most of the LNG from Qatargas 4 in Qatar, a joint venture of Shell and Qatar Petroleum, under a 15-year long-term supply agreement.

Golar Freeze, an existing LNG ship, will be chartered by Dusup from Bermuda-based Golar LNG Company and converted into a floating storage and regassification unit to be moored offshore within DP World's Jebel Ali terminal. LNG ships will moor alongside the Golar Freeze to offload their cargoes. Gas will be piped through a sub-sea pipeline from the Golar Freeze into the Dubai natural gas pipeline network to industrial customers.

The regassification capacity of the Golar Freeze will be 3 million tonnes a year, equivalent to 400 million cubic feet a day of natural gas.

Government-owned Dusup has sole responsibility to supply gas users in Dubai. It also owns the emirate's gas pipeline network (MEED 20:4:08).