Qatari gas supplies to the UAE may be slightly delayed to early 2007 due to technical reasons, but construction of a gas pipeline is on track, the UAE energy minister said.

Doubts about the $3.5 billion Dolphin Energy project surfaced in July when Saudi Arabia told minority partners in the project, France’s Total and US Occidental Petroleum, that it had reservations about the pipeline route.
Dolphin said then that it had not received any objection from Saudi Arabia and that the line was near completion. 
“It (delivery) was supposed to be the end of the year but now maybe it will be the first quarter of next year,” UAE Energy Minister Mohammed Al Hamli said.
“With a project as big as this one, you would expect some delays. There is nothing unusual,” he said.“
The delays are technical reasons, maybe the installation on the Qatari side, but the laying of the pipeline is on track.”
The Dolphin gas grid project is the first cross-border gas pipeline in the region and aims to take up to 3.5 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas to the UAE and then later to Oman.