Dolphin Energy project will boost growth

Dolphin Energy's Dolphin Gas Project, one of the most important infrastructure projects in the GCC, started operations last week. It is considered the single largest energy initiative ever undertaken in the Middle East.

Through its supply of natural gas from Qatar, it will also bring together three GCC countries, the UAE, Qatar and Oman, in a regional energy network of strategic importance.

Investments are expected to flow, increasing industrial projects. Job opportunities will be created, additional power stations and water desalination plants will be built, which will lead to developing the Gulf economies, and diversify resources of national income.

Model project

The Dolphin Energy project, which comprises a 364-kilometre undersea pipeline between Qatar and the UAE, is a model for projects that are needed in the GCC.

Energy resources are considered the GCC's development dynamo.

While oil contributed to re-building European economies in the post-Second World War era, fast growing economies such as those in India and China and the Gulf are dependent on their oil revenues.

The energy infrastructure in the region needs to add more such projects. GCC countries are on the threshold of a huge development phase in the coming two decades. This in itself calls for developing energy infrastructure.

GCC countries have begun building electric power networks, which are to be completed in 2010. This will pave the way towards making use of the huge investments in power production.

Considering that this sort of energy cannot be stored, its usage has to follow its production immediately.

GCC countries need a natural gas network; therefore, Dolphin Gas Project can be the starting point for a larger gas network project between GCC countries.

There are various and numerous usages for gas. They can be used in power generating turbines, as raw material for petrochemical industries, in addition to household and oil field usages.

Such a project will greatly back Gulf economies and decrease industrial production costs, as keeping costs low has become a critical issue in the global commercial environment.

A single gas network can be the base for several industrial projects, where GCC countries have global production precedence.

The Dolphin Gas Project will not only feed power generating plants, but will back giant industrial projects such as aluminium and steel production projects where energy sources make up 40 per cent of their contents.

Successful partnerships

The Dolphin Gas Project, which became operational last week, comes in this context of future strategies, which takes into consideration global economic changes in the energy sector.

The project sets a model for successful regional and international partnerships.

It is also a great accomplishment for the "Mubadala" programme, which has played a pivotal role in the UAE economic development sector.

With strategically important projects, such as Dolphin Gas, we can look forward with great optimism towards the future of UAE's economy, which is expected to achieve high growth rates in coming years.

The writer is a UAE economic expert.