By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 11 -- A regional gas grid is materializing in the Middle East with the completion of the Dolphin gas project in Qatar and the advancement of Shah sour gas field in Abu Dhabi.
The $3.5 billion Dolphin project, which includes a 370-km, 48-in. subsea gas export pipeline connecting Qatar with the UAE, is fully operational and delivering natural gas from its own production wells to customers in the UAE, said project partner Occidental Petroleum Corp.
The project enables gas from supergiant North field off Qatar to be transported to a processing plant in Ras Laffan and then to the Taweelah receiving facility in the UAE.
Additional deliveries to customers in Oman are expected to begin soon, Oxy said. Earlier reports said Qatar plans to export 200 MMcfd of gas to Oman starting in 2008 (OGJ Online, Mar. 8, 2007).
Initial production from the project is expected to ramp up by yearend, reaching nearly 2 bcfd.
For the Shah project, state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) has invited international oil companies Oxy, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil Corp., and Royal Dutch Shell PLC to submit revised bids to develop the onshore field's sour gas reserves. Revised bids reportedly are to be submitted by the end of August.
The initial tender in April called for plans to develop gas reserves in Shah and Bab fields at an estimated cost of $10 billion. After it failed to attract enough international interest due to the complexity of developing both fields together, ADNOC split the project.
A decision for bids for Bab field development has been delayed for several months.
Other companies that bid for the Shah development but were not selected to continue in the competition are BP PLC, Total SA, Japan Oil Development Co., and BASF subsidiary Wintershall AG.
