Eight consortia bid
for regasification units

Site will be in Selaata, Zahrani, or Deir Amar

Eight consortia presented their bids to participate in a tender for the import of a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), according to the Ministry of Energy and Water.

Some of the bidders are major oil and gas companies such as Shell, Rosneft, and Qatar Petroleum, and two of them, ENI and Total, have also won an exploration and production agreement for oil and gas.

FSRUs are offshore gas terminals that are connected to power plants. They take LNG in liquid form and expand it into gaseous form. Thirteen consortia had earlier expressed interest in participating in the tender.

An FSRU could cost up to $400 million, according to Zaher Sleiman, Advisor to the MoEW.

The FSRU will be installed in one of three sites: Selaata, Zahrani, and Deir Amar. The other two sites will be subjects of future tenders as well.

The MoEW will finish evaluating the bids in mid-February. It will then negotiate with companies, and present its recommendations to the Cabinet.

The MoEW is also expected to launch a tender for the construction of pipelines between the FSRU and the onshore power plant.