Gulf News reported that Citadel Capital SAE has agreed with Qatari investors to import liquefied natural gas into Egypt from mid 2013.

Citadel Capital said that the JV which will be 51% owned by Qatari investors and investment bank QInvest, would build and own facilities needed for a floating LNG storage and regasification unit to deliver natural gas to high volume end users in the north African country from the middle of next year.

According to the terms of the agreement, the JV will import LNG, warm it back into gaseous form on board the special ship and then pump it into the Egyptian national gas grid to help to meet demand from large users such as power stations.

FSRU’s are attractive to many new LNG importers because they are much cheaper and quicker to set up than permanent regasification facilities that can cost billions of dollars.