Oil & Gas Directory - Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer)

DOLPHIN ENERGY LIMITED AND THE DOLPHIN GAS PROJECT
Dolphin Energy’s Dolphin Gas Project is a unique regional strategic energy initiative that has now reached its completion phase - after eight exciting years of planning, design, construction and commissioning.

Gas is now being produced by Dolphin Energy in Qatar and supplied to customers in the UAE via the company’s dedicated export pipeline.

Dolphin Energy Limited is the energy development company established in 1999 by the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The Dolphin Gas Project was created in 1999 to produce large quantities of natural gas offshore Qatar, and to supply this to the United Arab Emirates for 25 years, starting in mid-2007. It is one of the largest energy-related projects ever undertaken in the Middle East.

The project has involved the production of natural gas from Qatar’s offshore North Field, its processing onshore at Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City (where valuable by-products will be extracted for international sale) and transport through the Export Pipeline of the compressed, refined gas to Abu Dhabi’s Taweelah. From Dolphin’s Receiving Facilities there, the gas is distributed by landline to contracted customers in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Northern Emirates. Supplies will begin to Oman in early 2008.

When production is ramped up to achieve full throughput in early 2008, some 2 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day (scf/day) will be delivered through the export pipeline. Provision has been made to subsequently expand throughput to 3.2 billion scf/day, subject to future agreement between the Qatari and Abu Dhabi governments.

The UAE’s need for imported natural gas is already clear.

Although Abu Dhabi possesses the fourth-largest gas reserves in the world, a major portion of these reserves has already been allocated to essential projects. These include future supply of gas to additional power and water plants and new industries. Hence the requirement for a reliable, long-term source of imported natural gas.

Meanwhile, UAE demands continues to grow, at exponential rates. New UAE power stations and desalination plants, aluminium smelters and industrial cities are already in detailed planning stages, through to 2020 and beyond. These and other projects in the UAE’s booming industrial and free zones increasingly require a constant, reliable source of natural gas, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Dolphin’s natural gas from Qatar, which will be available in very substantial quantities, will make a strong supporting contribution - through this economical, environmentallyacceptable and above all dedicated source of energy.

Dolphin Energy Limited:
Shareholders and Customers
Dolphin Energy Limited was established in March 1999 as an initiative of the Government of Abu Dhabi. From the beginning, its founders conceived Dolphin as a force for international energy cooperation that would unite the vision and resources of the region with multinational capital and expertise.

Dolphin’s three shareholders are Mubadala Development Company with 51 percent, and Total of France and Occidental Petroleum of the USA with 24.5 percent each. Mubadala Development Company is wholly owned by the Government of the UAE Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Dolphin Energy has signed substantial long-term gas sales agreements in with its core customers, Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and Union Water & Electricity Company (UWEC) and Dubai Supply Authority (DUSUP). A short-term gas sales agreement with Ras Al Khaimah Natural Gas Commission is also currently in place.

In 2005, Dolphin signed a further long term gas sales agreement with Oman Oil Company, to deliver gas to Oman from 2008.

Dolphin Energy Limited was officially incorporated through Abu Dhabi Emiri Decree No 8, issued on May 26, 2002. Its role and responsibilities are fully detailed in Decision No. 1 of the Abu Dhabi Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC), which was published two days later.

Qatar: An Instrumental Role
The Government of Qatar is the owner of the natural resource which enables Dolphin to supply substantial quantities of natural gas to the UAE, and later Oman, for over 25 years. Extensive cooperation between the UAE and Qatari Governments, and between Dolphin Energy and Qatar Petroleum, has marked every stage of the Dolphin Gas Project.

Some 3,000 – 3,600 meters underground, beneath an extensive zone offshore Qatar’s north east coast, lies the largest single gas field in the world – North Field. It is gas from North Field which is not only powering Qatar’s own new LNG and petrochemical plants, but is also the feedstock for Dolphin and its clients.

Dolphin Energy’s construction activities in Qatar have seen the drilling of 24 deep offshore gas wells; construction and installation of twin production platforms; the laying of twin 30- inch sealines to Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial city; the construction at Ras Laffan of Dolphin’s Complex Gas Processing Plant - and the laying of the 48-inch 364 km Export Pipeline to take the refined gas to the UAE.

Valuable by-products - particularly condensate, propane and butane - will also be extracted at the Gas Processing Plant, for the sale on world markets.

Dolphin Supplies Gas to Fujairah
Dolphin Energy entered the business of gas supply in January 2004, with the commissioning of its 24-inch, 182-km natural gas pipeline connecting Al Ain with power and desalination plants in the UAE East Coast Emirate of Fujairah – to the ultimate benefit of hundreds of farmers and scores of inland rural communities.

Initially all the gas feedstock comes from Oman, via a pipeline tie-in on the UAE-Oman border near Al Ain. Now that Dolphin’s export pipeline from Qatar is operating, Dolphin natural gas from Qatar will reach Fujairah through a refurbished pipeline from Taweelah via Maqta and Al Ain, by early 2008.

Cooperation with Oman
Dolphin Energy and Oman Oil Company (OOC) have worked closely to create the foundation for a regional gas grid between the two countries.

In 2003, Dolphin signed a contract to receive Omani natural gas for the power and water plants in Fujairah for between 3 1/2 and 5 years. Provision has now been negotiated for a reversal of roles. In 2005 Dolphin and OOC agreed on future supply of Dolphin gas to Oman, to assist the Sultanate’s own industrialisation and development plans.

The Importance of Quality, Health, Safety and Environment
Now that the Dolphin Gas Project has entered the gas supply phase, Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental (QHSE) policies and activities have become more important than ever.

Dolphin Energy is fully committed to safeguarding the environment and to minimizing health and safety risks to employees, contractors and members of all the communities in which it operates.

Dolphin’s QHSE teams work closely with the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) and Qatar’s Supreme Council for the Environment & Nature Reserves (SCENR) to implement appropriate QHSE measures throughout the Dolphin operational area.

As a major three year investment, Dolphin is currently sponsoring an extensive Arabian Gulf coral reef conservation project, (2005 – 2007), in support of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Dolphin Energy constantly emphasizes its core policy commitment to quality and to the protection of health, safety and the environment – a commitment which ranks equally with all its other primary business objectives.

How to Contact Dolphin Energy Limited
Head Office: P.O. Box 33777, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Tel: + 971 2 699 5500/6544 Fax: + 971 2 644 6090
Qatar: P .O. Box 22275, Doha, Qatar
Tel: + 974 4949494 Fax: + 974 4949490
www.dolphinenergy.com

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