Abu Dhabi could resell Qatari natural gas it imports through the Dolphin Energy pipeline to the northern UAE as early as next year, a senior official said.

“Dolphin gas could be available for the northern emirates in one or two years,” said Khalid Malallah Al Awadi, gas operations manager of Emirates General Petroleum Corporation (Emarat).
“It would be only economical and logical for Abu Dhabi to sell Dolphin gas to the northern emirates, especially in winter.”
The Dolphin pipeline is already carrying 400 million cubic feet per day (cfd) of gas from Qatar to Dubai via Abu Dhabi. It is testing its import facilities in Abu Dhabi ahead of full commercial launch in early June.
By the end of the year, the volume of gas flowing through the pipeline to Abu Dhabi was expected to reach two billion cfd.
The UAE is struggling to meet its domestic gas demand due to rapid economic expansion. Demand in the northern emirates will double to two billion cfd by 2015 from from one billion cfd now, Awadi said.
There is pipeline capacity to supply as much as 420 million cfd from the Dolphin pipeline to Emarat’s network in the north of the country, he said.
Of that, 300 million was in a link from Jebel Ali in Dubai and the rest from the emirate of Fujairah, he added.
A soon-to-be completed pipeline in the northern emirate of Sharjah would supply the Dolphin gas to power plants of the Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA) and the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA), he said.
Emarat is building the pipeline jointly with Dana Gas affiliate the United Gas Transmission Company.
The 32 km, 48-inch pipeline will have capacity of a billion cfd and be ready by the end of this year. It will link the onshore Sajaa gas hub to Sharjah’s power plants and industrial users.
Completion was delayed to December from the previous target of September due in part to delays in material supplies.
Crescent Petroleum, based in Sharjah, has a deal with Iran to import gas from an offshore Iranian gasfield. Some of that gas was expected to supply Sharjah users through the same pipeline.
But imports have been delayed nearly a year.