THE Dolphin Gas Project, a unique strategic regional energy initiative, is on course to achieve its target of coming onstream in 2006.

Dolphin’s $3.5-billion inter-Gulf gas project aims to pump an initial two billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from Qatar’s giant North Field to the UAE by 2006.
In a major development, Dolphin Energy Ltd has clinched a deal to supply the UAE’s northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) with natural gas from March 2005.
The UAE-based Dolphin agreed to sell the RAK Gas Commission about 40 million cubic feet per day of gas for a period of two years and five months through the end of July 2007, Dolphin said.
The gas will initially be sourced from Oman, which is currently supplying to Dolphin for onward sale to the Qidfa power plant in Fujairah.
Dolphin is currently building a $3.5-billion undersea gas pipeline from Qatar, which is due to come onstream in 2006.
The UAE government-owned Mubadala Develop-ment Co owns 51 per cent of Dolphin, while France’s Total and Occidental Petroleum of the US each hold a 24.5 per cent stake.
Dolphin has already signed long-term (25-year) gas supply pacts with the Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Co (Adwea) and the Union Water & Electricity Co (Uwec).
Dolphin also earlier signed a $1.36 billion loan agree-ment with a consortium of 16 local, regional and international banks.
The proceeds of the loan will be used to fund a portion of the construction and operating costs for the multi-billion project.
The Abu Dhabi-based company said the five-year deal, initially priced at 45 basis points over the London interbank rate, is expected to refinance with the proceeds of permanent project financing before the bridge loan matures.
With the award of the major engineering, procurement, and construction contracts earlier this year, Dolphin is now entering a phase of heavy expenditure.
Dolphin has also issued a tender for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) package on the project. It has also signed a memorandum of under-standing with the state-owned Oman Oil Co to supply natural gas to Oman.
Dolphin Energy Ltd was established in Abu Dhabi in 1999, to undertake the Dolphin gas project that will produce, process and transport natural gas from Qatar through a pipeline to the UAE.
Raw natural gas will be extracted from Qatar’s offshore North Field through specially-built production platforms and then transported by marine pipelines to Dolphin’s dedicated processing plant onshore in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City.
The plant will receive wet gas from Dolphin’s facilities in Qatar and strip out valuable hydrocarbon liquids, including conden-sate and NGL products for processing, marketing and sale.
The plant will compress the resulting dry gas for transportation by Dolphin’s export pipeline to the UAE.
The company has constructed a 182-kilometre pipeline between Al Ain and Fujairah to the UAE’s east coast, in order to supply the emirate’s new Uwec power and desalination plant.
Once Dolphin gas from Qatar becomes available from 2006, the switch to this long-term supply source will be made. In the near future,
Oman will also be able to receive Dolphin gas from Qatar through the Al Ain link as and when required.
Meanwhile, JGC, the largest engineering contrac-tor in Japan, has selected Honeywell to provide integrated control and safety systems for Dolphin.
The Honeywell systems will automate two offshore gas production platforms in the north field and a large onshore gas processing plant in Ras Laffan Industrial City.