Senegal is set to be partly powered by liquefied natural gas for the first time with the arrival at the capital, Dakar, on Wednesday of a floating gas facility from Singapore, the West African nation's state power company, Senelec, said.

The floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) is the result of a joint venture between Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd (MOL) and Turkey's Karpowership, which supplies power from its fleet of ships mainly to eight African nations.

Once up and running, the unit will supply LNG to a Karpowership vessel, which covers around 15% of Senegalese supply and has until now run on oil like most of the country's power plants.

"This project aims to provide reliable, affordable, and cleaner power," Senelec said.

It did not say when the FSRU would be operational.

Karpowership - part of the Karadeniz Energy Group - operates floating power facilities, which are faster and less costly to set up than traditional land-based units. 

(Reporting by Bate Felix; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Peter Cooney)