Italian firm Saipem has been awarded a $350m contract to build a natural gas export pipeline between Qatar and the UAE. 

Also several other firms have been awarded major contracts for the construction of a gas processing plant and offshore platforms in Dolphin Energy’s latest manoeuvres to bolster international natural gas exchange.
Dolphin said in reference to the new pipeline that Milan-based Saipem beat out competition from Allseas of Switzerland, J Ray McDermott, NPCC of the UAE and Stolt of France to build the 370 km, 48 inch subsea pipeline.
The pipeline will transport gas from Dolphin’s processing plant in Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial city to landfall at Taweelah in Abu Dhabi. Sayegh said the award represented an essential milestone in the development of the $3.5 billion regional gas project.
“This pipeline is key to our plans, as it will transport valuable gas to our new energy markets in the UAE and subsequently Oman,” Sayegh said. Dolphin Energy is owned 51 per cent by Mubadala Investment Co, on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government, and 24.5 per cent each by Total and Occidental Petroleum.
The Dolphin Project involves production and processing of natural gas from Qatar and transportation of up to 3.2-billion cu ft per day of dry gas to the UAE from 2006.
Dolphin Energy, which is a joint venture between the UAE government, Total and Occidental Petroleum, awarded the major contracts for construction of the gas processing plant and offshore platforms to Japan’s JGC Corp, J Ray McDermott and Rolls Royce Energy Systems, Dolphin said recently. The awards cover engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for both Dolphin Energy’s gas processing and compression plant at Qatar’s Ras Laffan and two offshore gas production platforms, as well as the supply of the compression trains for the plant, the company said. The EPC award for the gas processing and compression plant went to JGC at a value of about $1.6 billion.
The plant, to come online in 2006, will be at Ras Laffan and will receive wet gas from Dolphin’s facilities in Qatar’s offshore North Field. The plant will have six 52 MW gas turbines to be supplied by Rolls Royce. The third award went to J Ray McDermott for the building, installation and hook-up of Dolphin’s two offshore production platforms in North Field, where gas reserves are estimated at 900 trillion cubic feet (tcf). “A quality performance from each company will be critical to Dolphin’s on-time delivery of its first gas to the UAE in 2006,” said Dolphin CEO Ahmed Sayegh.
Developing links
The Dolphin Project aims to develop links between the natural gas infrastructures of Qatar, the UAE, and Oman. It will allow the export of non-associated natural gas from Qatar’s massive offshore North Dome field. A Statement of Principles for the project was signed in March 1999 between the UAE Offsets Group (UOG) and Qatar Petroleum. 
The two firms signed a natural gas sales agreement in March 2001, with natural gas supplies expected to start in late 2006. Estimated to cost $8-10 billion over the next decade, the project will begin as a subsea pipeline from Ras Laffan in Qatar to a landfall in Abu Dhabi, which will then be extended to Dubai and northern Oman. It will start at 48 inches in diameter, narrowing to 30 inches by the time it reaches Oman.
In its initial phase, the pipeline is to carry 3 billion cu ft per day of Qatari natural gas to the UAE and Oman, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of total world natural gas supplies shipped by pipeline.
In October 1999, UOG and Adnoc issued a joint declaration dividing up natural gas distribution between them. Natural gas from the Dolphin Project will be the exclusive supply for natural gas-fired power plants, except in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi, and will also supply natural gas for Adnoc contracts with Dubai. Natural gas from the Dolphin Project will use the Adnoc distribution network until the project develops its own network.
In March 2000, UOG signed a contract with two foreign firms, TotalFinaElf and Enron, after securing purchase agreements with Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Oman.  Originally, the two main foreign firms participating in the project were Enron and TotalFinaElf. 
In May 2001, however, Enron announced that it was backing out of the project, and selling its 24.5 per cent stake back to UOG.  UOG sold this share to Occidental Petroleum in June 2002 after receiving bids from several foreign companies. Upstream development in Qatar began in 2003, and initial deliveries of natural gas to the UAE are expected to begin in 2006.
Oman already has a natural gas pipeline to Fujairah in the UAE, and until supplies from Qatar become available, Fujairah is importing natural gas from Oman, under a contract held by Dolphin Energy. Supplies of 135m cu ft per day of Omani natural gas commenced in January 2004 – the first natural gas transmission across national borders on the Arabian Peninsula.
Eventually, Qatari natural gas will be supplied to Fujairah, and the direction of the pipeline will be reversed, allowing for Omani imports of Qatari natural gas.