An agreement on the multibillion dollar Dolphin gas venture in which the emirate of Abu Dhabi carries and distributes Qatari gas will be signed soon, a specialist newsletter reported Monday.
"An agreement on the project is expected soon," the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reported.
"Detailed discussions between the UAE Offsets Group (UOG) and Qatar Petroleum (QP) have focused on the sale price of the gas, volumes, seasonal adjustments and the selection of the North Field blocks from which the gas will be sourced," MEES said.
Progress in the UOG Dolphin project had been delayed pending an agreement on the transfer price before other issues were discussed.
"Dolphin will also supply projects in other parts of the UAE, one of them being a water desalination plant which UOG is setting up in Fujairah," the Cyprus-based newsletter said.
Last month UOG prequalified 26 companies for "two engineering, procurement and construction projects costing a total of around one billion dollars related to the construction of a water desalination plant with a capacity of 100 million gallons a day to serve the northern emirates and the city of Al-Ain in the east," it said.
The multibillion dollar Dolphin project aims to create a regional gas grid taking gas from Qatar to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and eventually Pakistan.
In a project estimated at an overall cost of up to $10 billion, the gas is to be transported by undersea pipeline from Qatar to the Abu Dhabi coast.
The gas will be distributed inside Abu Dhabi and neighboring Dubai through existing networks and will be transported between the two through a pipeline for which technical bids have already been submitted.
The pipeline will then continue overland to Oman and from there to Pakistan through an undersea pipeline. The extension to Pakistan will cost up to an additional $3 billion.
Mobil Oil Qatar Inc., an affiliate of Mobil Corp., signed a memorandum of understanding with UOG last year to start negotiations on developing a long-term supply and purchase agreement for initial supplies, estimated to be in the range of 300 to 500 million cubic feet (nine to 15 million cubic metres) of gas per day.
Qatar sits on the world's third largest proven gas reserves, after Russia and Iran, estimated at 8.5 trillion cubic meters (297 trillion cubic feet).—AFP.
©--Agence France Presse 2001.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
