Austria’s ILF Consulting Engineers has won contract to design a pipeline to connect Dolphin Energy’s UAE gas pipeline network to the northern emirate of Sharjah.

Abu Dhabi-based Dolphin Energy, which imports gas through an undersea pipeline from Qatar, awarded the front-end engineering and design (feed) contract for the Northern Emirates Pipeline (NEP) to ILF in May.

The NEP will connected to an existing Dolphin Energy pipeline in the north of Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, and run 70 kilometres through the emirate of Sharjah to connect with a Sharjah National Oil Company-owned Sajaa gas plant.

The 36-inch NEP will be mainly laid in the desert in Sharjah and is planned to cover growing demand for gas from the emirates of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah.

Dolphin Energy has also invited companies to prequalify for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tender for the project, with contractors asked to submit documents by 17 August.

The company expects the EPC contract to be awarded by the end of the first quarter of 2015.  

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 an agreement was never signed on increased supply, 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.