Israel is soliciting technical and financial consultants for what will be one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the country. The National Infrastructure Ministry and the Natural Gas Authority are planning to build a liquefied-natural-gas terminal as part of the country’s switch from coal and oil to natural gas.

The agencies have issued an international tender for consultants to help determine the site and the technical specifications of the planned terminal, whose value is estimated at more than $1 billion.

“The consultants will have to determine whether the facility will be on or offshore and advise the ministry on the tender process,” says Hezi Kugler, director general of the infrastructure ministry. In February the Israeli government approved the issuing of a build-operatetransfer tender for an LNG terminal that could handle 4 billion cu meters to be operational by 2015.

 The decision will require state-owned Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) to purchase at least 1 billion cu m of LNG annually for a minimum of 10 years to guarantee profitability. The winning bidder is expected to be an energy company that would build and operate the terminal as well as guarantee supplies.

The decision to build an LNG terminal is based on the recommendations last year of New York City-based energy consulting firm Poten & Partners Inc., which looked at eight on and offshore sites for the proposed terminal. The ministry hopes to issue a prequalifying tender by the end of the year and the commercial tender in the following year.

“LNG will play a key role in supplying Israel’s growing demand for natural gas in the coming years,” predicts Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.