A TENDER to build a $800-million liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Bahrain was floated last month.

Fourteen international companies, who have already been shortlisted and approved by the government to tender for the giant project, are bidding for the facility, said Bapco major engineering projects general manager Isa Al Ansari, adding that the winning bidder was expected to be named sometime in the first quarter of next year and construction would begin soon after.

Al Ansari was speaking on the sidelines of an industry conference being held at the Mövenpick Hotel in the kingdom, titled ‘Improving Oil Refineries to Produce Clean Fuels’.

“If all goes well, the terminal should be up and running by the end of 2014,” he said.

The project is set to create hundreds of jobs, added Al Ansari. He said extensive studies had revealed a large area east of the Khalifa bin Salman Port to be the most suitable site for the project, which would initially have a capacity of 400 m standard cu ft of LNG per day.