ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi is in talks with banks and advisers about an import terminal for liquefied natural gas the Gulf emirate plans in the neighbouring sheikhdom of Fujairah, two people with knowledge of the project said.
Mubadala Development Co. and International Petroleum Investment Co., two Abu Dhabi state-owned investment funds which share ownership of the project, are seeking international banks to advise them on financing, said the two people, who declined to be identified because the talks are confidential.
The partners are also looking for industrial advisers to make construction plans and set technical parameters for the facility, the people said. A spokesman for Korea Gas Corp. said last week that South Korea's biggest gas importer has been hired by the two funds to help develop the LNG facility.
The Fujairah terminal on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates would allow imported gas to be transmitted through overland pipelines to UAE and Oman without having to send LNG tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran earlier this year threatened to blockade the strait, a shipping chokepoint at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, in response to international sanctions.
Emirates LNG, as the project is known, is "in a range of discussions with various people who might be involved in the project," Andrew Mitchell, a spokesman for Mubadala Oil and Gas, said by telephone from Abu Dhabi on May 9. He declined to say which companies were involved in talks. IPIC didn't immediately reply yesterday to an e-mail seeking comment and Mitchell said by e-mail yesterday that Mubadala had no additional comment on the matter.
Korea Gas, based in Bundang, South Korea, won a contract to work as "technology adviser" for the planned LNG facility, Song Jae Ho, a company spokesman, said by telephone on May 10. The bid was awarded on January 18, he said.
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