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Dolphin Energy Aims to Add Supply, Pipeline Capacity

The company is ûtechnically ready to upgrade its pipeline facilities to ship at the full capacity of 3.2 billion cubic feet daily, Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Al Sayegh said in an interview on Thursday
 in Abu Dhabi.

Dolphin, 51 per cent-owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-run investor Mubadala Development Co., transports about 2 billion cubic feet of Qatari gas a day to the UAE and Oman. Increasing supply is subject to Qatar making more fuel available, Al Sayegh said at a Bloomberg energy seminar 
in Abu Dhabi.

“That capacity will be filled,” he said. “My prediction, given the demand that exists here and given the resource that is available in the north, is that this system will continue to grow and 
grow and grow.”

The UAE, which holds about 8 per cent of global crude oil reserves, needs to import natural gas to fire its power plants as energy demand grows along with its population and economy. The UAE and Oman are looking for new oil and gas supplies and seeking to get more fuel out of older fields.

Dolphin needs to upgrades and add new onshore facilities such as turbines that pressurise and move gas to reach full capacity. The company completed the technical study for the work, he said. The venture, in which Total SA and Occidental Petroleum Corp. hold 24.5 per cent stakes, is the first of its kind and a major step in regional fuel supply policies, Al Sayegh said.

Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, aims to boost production to 77 million tons a year by 2010. The country will decide whether to further expand gas production and make more fuel available after completing studies on deposits at its North Field by 2012.

“Our region has never built a gas system before, said Al Sayegh . “We are very confident the existence of a gas system will not just enhance our economy’s growth, but will add flexibility to marketing the North 
Field gas.”