Qatar’s Dolphin Energy (DEL) and the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently signed a contract launching a pipeline to supply the UAE with Qatari gas. Sealing the deal were representatives of the Qatari and UAE governments, DEL and TotalFinaElf, which hold 24.5 percent of the project’s shares, reported AFP.
The project, estimated at an overall cost of $10 billion will transport gas by an undersea pipeline from Qatar to the Abu Dhabi coast. The gas will be distributed inside Abu Dhabi and neighboring Dubai through an existing set of connections. The pipeline will continue overland to Oman and Pakistan through an undersea channel, which is expected to increase the project’s cost by three billion dollars.
In mid-December the Dolphin gas project has moved into the engineering and design stage with the award of the upstream front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract to a partnership of the US’ Foster Wheeler and France’s Sofresid to carry out the work in eight months.
The $10.3-million contract calls for the engineering, design and management of the offshore production platforms in the North Field, the offshore pipeline from the North Field to Ras Laffan, a gas processing plant at Ras Laffan, gas compression facilities at Ras Laffan, and product storage, offsites, loading and associated facilities.
DEL is owned 75.5 per cent by the UAE Offsets Group (UOG), which is the promoter of the Dolphin project, while France’s TotalFinaElf owns the remaining 24.5 per cent. UOG is currently in negotiations with five international oil companies (IOCs) – BP, Conoco, Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum, and Royal Dutch Shell – short listed for acquiring a part of its stake and becoming a strategic partner in the project by the end of the first quarter of 2002. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
