The UAE's Dolphin Energy said it would finish building a cross-country pipeline to pump gas from Qatar to the east coast of the UAE in the third quarter 2010. The UAE imports around 2 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) into the emirate of Abu Dhabi from Qatar to meet around a third of domestic demand. Gas consumption in the UAE has outpaced growth of supplies, even though the world's third-largest oil exporter sits on fifth-largest gas reserves. The gas pipeline would allow Dolphin to pump gas 240 kilometers (150 miles) to Fujairah on the UAE's east coast from the plant in Abu Dhabi's Taweelah that receives Qatari gas. “The project is on track to be completed by the third quarter of 2010,” Dolphin said in a statement Sunday. The project had experienced delays in the early phase of construction, the company said. The gas was earmarked to supply a new power plant on the east coast. Dolphin has completed testing a plant to receive gas for the Qidfa power and water plant in Fujairah, the statement said. Another section of pipeline from Taweelah to link up with a pipeline to the UAE city of Al Ain and then on to Fujairah would be completed in February, Dolphin said. This would supply the power plant in Qidfa until supply via the Taweelah-Fujairah pipeline could begin, it said. Mubadala Development Co, run by the government of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, owns 51 percent of Dolphin. France's Total and US Occidental Petroleum each have a 24.5 percent stake. Dolphin was the first cross-border gas project in the Gulf Arab region, and began importing gas from Oman to the UAE in 2004. Supplies from Qatar to the UAE began in 2007. Russia's Stroytransgaz won a $418 million contract to build the Fujairah-Taweelah pipeline in July 2008.
