Dolphin delivers

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Dolphin has installed two dedicated natural gas platforms above Qatar’s North Field.

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Adel Al Buainain, general manager - Qatar, Dolphin Energy.

The contract is due to run for 25 years, and Al Buainain is confident that the demand is there despite rumours of Abu Dhabi's planned gas development.

"Abu Dhabi's sour gas development will be to provide extra capacity to the energy market there. The Dolphin project is likely to meet around 30% of the UAE needs, so that still leaves a significant energy demand to be met from elsewhere," he says.

"The gas from the north field is sweet; some wells do have more sulphur content than others, but only around 1% so that is still considered a very clean product."

The Dolphin Gas Project is a unique strategic energy initiative, which has been supplying increasing quantities of natural gas from offshore Qatar to the United Arab Emirates since July 2007.

After successively ramping up production in subsequent months, Dolphin achieved its target throughput rate of 2 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day (scf/day) in February this year.

Dolphin Energy Limited was established as a development company in Abu Dhabi in 1999 to implement the Dolphin Gas Project, and to undertake other important energy-related developments such as the Al Ain - Fujairah Gas Pipeline.

This was completed in December 2003 and commissioned in January 2004, creating the first ever cross-border refined gas transmission in the history of the GCC.

The mandate of Dolphin Energy is to produce, supply and transport natural gas from a dedicated section of Qatar's offshore North Field to customers in the UAE and Oman, up to the agreed 2 billion bcf/d.

That gas is designed for domestic consumption, and is not expected to be sold on to third parties or made available on international markets.

"The capacity of the pipeline actually reaches up to 3.2 billions bcf, and our contract is only for 2 billion bcf. Up to that point the gas can be bought at a set price, with an incremental increase each year.

Any extra gas that flows through the pipeline will be bought on the spot market, and used at source," adds Al Buainain.

The linking subsea pipeline - completed in August 2006 - is 364km in length, and 48 inches in diameter.

It is the longest and largest gas pipeline in the Middle East.

The costs of the complex upstream gas gathering and processing plant in Qatar's Ras Laffan and the overall investment in the Dolphin Gas Project have made it one of the largest energy-related ventures ever undertaken in the region.

Dolphin Energy Limited was established in March 1999. French oil major Total, became a shareholder in 2000, and subsequently US owned Occidental Petroleum was invited to take equity in the company in May 2002.

The shareholding structure is Mubadala Development Company 51%, Total 24.5% and Occidental Petroleum 24.5%.

"Total and Oxy have proved excellent partners on the project, and their expertise has been very useful in the exploration and production phases of the project," says Al Buainain.

By transporting natural gas from one of the world's largest fields to the UAE and Oman, the Dolphin project will stimulate industrial and business investment in the region through secure, competitively priced natural gas supplies over many decades.

The Dolphin Gas Project involves activity along the entire 'gas value chain', from the development of gas fields to the creation of new industrial zones and projects, fuelled by the power generated from gas piped from those fields.

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