Russian firm wins $418m Dolphin deal

Abu Dhabi: Dolphin Energy on Tuesday said it has awarded a $418 million (Dh1.53 billion) construction contract to Russia's Stroytransgaz for a new natural gas pipeline from Taweelah to Fujairah.

The Moscow-based contractor is thought to have made the lowest offer for the design-and-build contract when bids were submitted in February, a media report said.

"Eight international construction companies initially bid for the work, and technical tenders were accepted from five, which proceeded to the commercial bid stage. They were: Al Jaber Energy Services, UAE; Consolidated Contractors International, Greece; Dodsal, India; Stroytransgaz and Saipem/Snamprogetti of Italy," Dolphin said.

The Taweelah-Fujairah pipeline will link Dolphin's gas receiving facilities at Taweelah, on the coast of Abu Dhabi, with ADWEA's power and water desalination plant at Qidfa, in Fujairah, said Dolphin, adding the site work will begin during third quarter 2008.

Dolphin executives declined to comment on when the new pipeline will come onstream and how much gas it will be supplying to Fujairah daily.

Dalton Garis, associate professor of Economics at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, told Gulf News that "The UAE has announced plans to fully integrate its energy grid. Every network needs redundant lines to ensure against supply shortages. And, with this new pipeline, additional new supply capacity will be added, relieving the existing capacity of excess burden and anticipating the needs that will come out of the expected economic growth in Fujairah".

Dolphin said: "The new gas pipeline will be 48 inches in diameter. It is to be laid over an environmentally approved cross-country route, through more than 240 kilometres of desert and mountainside - one of the longest and largest overland pipelines in the UAE."

The Dolphin gas pipeline connecting Qatar with the UAE delivers some two billion standard cubic feet (bscf) of natural gas per day. Provision has been made to expand the pipeline's capacity to 3.2 bscf per day.

The Dolphin gas project involves production of natural gas from Qatar's offshore North Field, its processing in Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City and transport of the compressed, refined gas to Taweelah from where it is distributed.