Kuwait has inaugurated its first permanent liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, Al Zour LNG terminal, for its LNG importing business, Gulf Business reported.

The terminal received its first LNG cargo from Qatar on July 12.

The terminal is the largest of its kind in the Middle East as it is designed to import as much as 22 million tons (mmt) of super-chilled gas per year.

According to BloombergNEF, LNG usage is expected to increase by about 50% by 2025, with most of the increase coming from Kuwait.

“Gas demand in Kuwait is set to rise in the power sector due to the planned phase-out of oil plants worth 10 gigawatts… Gas-demand growth is likely to outpace domestic production growth from the Jurassic fields, raising LNG imports,” Abhishek Rohatgi, an LNG analyst at BloombergNEF, stated.

Other Gulf countries are following Kuwait’s footprint to phase out oil from their power markets. Saudi Arabia has a targets to rely on solar, wind, and natural gas instead of burning as much as 1 million barrels a day of crude (mmbbl) in its electricity plants by 2030.