Kuwait is pressing ahead with planning for its first onshore import terminal and is looking to nail down an LNG supply agreement.
“Although we are keeping our options open Qatar remains the most likely supplier,” said Adnan Eid Al-Adwani, team leader of gas operations at Kuwait Petroleum Corporation subsidiary Kuwait Oil Company.
“Having a regional supplier makes sense logistically,” he added.
Engineering big-hitter Foster Wheeler has been appointed to help design the 1 billion to 1.5 billion cubic metres per annum plant, said Al-Adwani.
A local Kuwaiti contractor will be tapped for the mechanical construction phase, he added.
The team leader visited a number of LNG import facilities in Europe this past month, including the UK’s Isle of Grain terminal, as part of an assessment on how to proceed with the project.
The Kuwaiti facility, which will include a jetty and will be linked to the national gas grid, is due to be completed by 2017.
However, the exact location has yet to be determined.
Kuwait already has a floating LNG import facility based at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery.
Excelerate Energy’s 150,900-cbm regasification vessel Exquisite (built 2009) acts as the terminal.
The Houston-based company has a three-year charter contract to provide a regas ship during Kuwait’s imports season in the summer when high temperatures push up cooling demand.
KPC kicked off the season early this year with a first cargo in April and has been forced to purchase additional volumes on the spot market to cope with the summer peak.
