Qatar’s national oil company, Qatar Petroleum, has increased the production capacity of its main onshore Dukhan oil field by 12 per cent to 335,000 barrels a day, as Dolphin secures a construction contractor for it's pipeline to transport Qatari gas across the Gulf .

Ahmed al-Sulaiti, Dukhan’s operations manager, said the field processing facilities could handle around 383,000 bpd if new capacity were added in the future, but the field is currently producing 300,000 bpd.
Dukhan, which is about 80 kilometers west of the capital Doha, started production in 1949, the first in Qatar . Al-Sulaiti said all the upstream oil development at the field is carried out by state-owned QP.
Al-Sulaiti said QP is also producing around 36,000 bpd of condensate, 110,000 bpd of liquid natural gas, 1.3 billion standard cubic feet a day of non-associated gas and 225 million cubic feet a day of associated gas from the Dukhan field.
A major gas-production upgrade is about to be completed at Dukhan at a cost of 2.9 billion riyals ($798m).
“The Dukhan Arab D project upgrade is considered one of the most important developments at Qatar Petroleum, and we hope to inaugurate it next July,” he said.
This project will provide Qatar Petrochemical Co’s LNG-4 plant located at the Mesaieed industrial zone with an ethane-rich gas supply, he said.
Among other projects being undertaken in the Dukhan region is Dukhan Gaslift Project at a cost of QAR900 million, which will help the company re-inject gas into the oil field to maintain crude oil production by using the compressed gas to push liquids in the well and maximize the productivity of the reservoirs.
Qatar is the smallest producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries with a crude output quota of 609,000 bpd.
Another portion of Qatari gas found a means of transport recently with Dolphin Energy Ltd. (DEL) announcing it has awarded Italian oil exploration and engineering firm Saipem a contract valued at more than 350 million dollars to lay its gas export pipeline between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“Saipem is the successful bidder for Dolphin’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) award to install the 370-kilometre (230-mile), 48-inch line,” Dolphin said in a statement.
The onshore EPC contract will cover the construction of Dolphin’s facilities at Ras Laffan, Qatar, including the gas processing plant, the compression plant and offsite facilities.
“To construct the export pipeline, some 440,000 tonnes of steel pipe will be manufactured in Japan and shipped to the Gulf. It will then be coated and laid in a continuous process by Saipem up to a maximum depth of 50 metres (165 feet),” it said.
“This pipeline is key to our plans, as it will transport valuable gas to our new energy markets in the UAE and subsequently Oman,” said DEL chief executive officer Ali al-Sayegh.
“On completion in 2006, the pipeline will transport natural gas from Dolphin Energy’s processing plant in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City to landfall at Taweelah in the UAE Emirate of Abu Dhabi,” Dolphin said.
The Dolphin project, estimated to cost up to 10 billion dollars overall, aims to create a regional grid exporting gas by undersea pipeline from Qatar to Abu Dhabi, and then on to Dubai, Oman and eventually Pakistan.
Qatar has the world’s third largest gas reserves after Russia and Iran.
The United Arab Emirates Offset Group (UOG) has a 51 per cent share in DEL, with France’s TotalFinaElf and Occidental Petroleum of the United States each holding a 24.5 per cent stake.