Oman expects to begin receiving natural gas through the Dolphin Energy pipeline from Qatar in the first quarter of next year, Oil Minister Mohammad bin Hamad Al Rumhi said.

“Maybe by the first quarter of next year,” he said when asked when Oman would receive gas.
“We are waiting for the Dolphin project, I think they have a delay of a few months, I understand,” he said on the sidelines of an oil conference in Riyadh.
Dolphin Energy said it was on track for the full commercial launch of gas imports from gas-rich Qatar to the UAE in the first week of June. The project is due to extend further south to Oman.
The pipeline, which is already carrying 400 million cubic feet per day to the UAE emirate of Dubai, is the first cross-border gas line in the Gulf region.
It will help meet soaring energy demand in the UAE, which is witnessing a construction boom fuelled by record oil revenues.
Mubadala Development Co, run by the government of Abu Dhabi in the UAE, owns 51 per cent of Dolphin Energy while Total and Occidental Petroleum each have a 24.5 per cent stake.
Rumhi said Oman is still in talks with Iran, another major natural gas producer, over a gas pipeline, but declined to give a timeframe for the project.
“We’re negotiating various aspects of the project – price, the technical side, pipeline, who-owns-what, the role of governments (and) companies in both Iran and Oman,” he said.
“All these things are under discussion now, these things take time.”