Local Dolphin Energy has invited companies to bid on a project to connect its natural gas pipeline network to the UAE emirates of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah.

Dolphin Energy’s main pipeline was commissioned in 2007 and imports gas to Abu Dhabi from Qatar and distributes the fuel to other areas including Dubai, Al-Ain and Fujairah.

The new pipeline project will connect to an existing pipeline in Al-Ain and run for 70 kilometres through the emirate of Sharjah to a Sharjah National Oil Company (SNOC) connection point.

Dolphin Energy has asked companies to bid for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tender for the project by 13 April.

Companies prequalified to bid for the contract are thought to include:

• Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC; Athens-based)
• Dodsal (UAE)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)
• Punj Lloyd (India)
• Saipem (Italy)

In 2014, Dolphin Energy awarded the front-end engineering & design (feed) study for the project to Austria’s ILF Consulting Engineers and invited companies to prequalify for the EPC contract. However, the EPC tender was delayed by two years.

The original Dolphin export pipeline, connecting Qatar’s North Field with Taweelah in Abu Dhabi, was completed in 2007.

The company is transferring about 2.3 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d), which is distributed via three Dolphin-owned pipelines to Fujairah, Al-Ain and across the border into Oman.

The pipeline has the capacity to transfer a total of 3.2 billion cf/d but a long-term agreement on increased supply was never signed, so it is unclear where Dolphin will source additional gas to pump to Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah unless it is redistributed from other emirates.

Dolphin Energy is a joint venture of Abu Dhabi’s state-owned Mubadala Development Company, US-based Occidental Petroleum and France’s Total.