Oman ABU DHABI, 27 Nov, 05 (WAM) - Dolphin Energy Ltd (DEL) is pushingahead with a major project to supply the UAE and Oman with naturalgas, but it will not be involved in future Qatari plans to pipegas to Kuwait or other countries.

DEL's Chief Executive Officer, Ahmed Al Sayegh, said the constructionof a plant at Qatar's Ras Laffan industrial city to process naturalgas from the country's giant North Field is under way while thecompany is about to begin the construction of a 370-kilometresubsea pipeline to carry gas from Qatar to Taweela in Abu Dhabi,then to potential customers.

In an interview with the Pipeline magazine to be published nextpump two billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to the UAEand Oman, an equivalent of nearly 500,000 bpd of crude oil. Buthe added that the pipeline has the capacity to carry nearly 3.2billion cubic feet per day in the event of an increase in demandfor Dolphin's gas.

" The project's initial stage will consist of two large wellplatforms offshore Qatar in the gas-rich North Field, which willproduce natural gas from the Khuff Zone through 24 individualwells. This gas will be transported to Qatar's Ras Laffan IndustrialCity via twin sealines. The two well platform jackets are nowin place and pipelay will start before the year end," he said.

" At Ras Laffan, this raw gas will then be fed into the DolphinGas Processing Plant, which will extract valuable by-productssuch as condensates and LPGs. The plant will subsequently compressthe resulting refined gas, for transport via the 370 km exportpipeline through joint Qatar-UAE waters to landfall at Al Taweelain Abu Dhabi." He said construction of the Gas Processing Plantis under way while pipelay for the export pipeline will startshortly. From Al Taweelah, the gas will flow by landlines tocontracted customers in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, the Northern Emiratesand Oman.

" Dolphin is currently receiving refined gas from Oman to supplythe power and water desalination plant at Qidfa, in Fujairah,through its own dedicated pipeline, commissioned early in 2004.

Once gas becomes available from Qatar, Qidfa will receive thisgas instead -- and Dolphin will become a seller of gas to Oman,rather than a customer." He noted that the Dolphin would be thelargest natural gas project in the GCC, on completion. " Thereare however no plans to extend the Dolphin network outside theQatar-UAE-Oman nexus," he said.

Asked about supplies, he said the target supply to the UAE andOman on completion of the project at the end of 2006 is two billioncubic feet of gas per day, "which is the equivalent of 500,000barrels of oil per day, a substantial quantity." " The exportpipeline, however, has been designed to eventually take an optimumthroughput of 3.2 billion cubic feet.