Qatar and Dolphin Energy will sign the final development and production sharing agreement (DPSA) for a multi-billion-dollar project to deliver Qatari gas abroad on November 18, reported Al-Sharq Al-Awsat . Construction of the pipeline will commence immediately after the contract’s signing.
Dolphin Energy will select an international oil major to become a strategic partner in the project by early 2002. The UAE offsets group (UOG) recently held separate negotiations with five short listed oil companies—Conoco, ExxonMobil and Occidental Petroleum of the United States, BP International and the Anglo-Dutch firm Shell—to replace the US firm Enron Corporation, which withdrew from the venture in May and transferred its 24.5 percent stake to UOG, reported AFP.
The project, estimated at an overall cost of $10 billion will transport gas by an undersea pipeline from Qatar to the Abu Dhabi coast. The gas will be distributed inside Abu Dhabi and neighboring Dubai through existing networks and will be transported between the two through a pipeline for which technical bids have already been submitted.
The pipeline will then continue overland to Oman and from there to Pakistan through an undersea pipeline. The extension to Pakistan is expected to cost up to an additional three billion dollars. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
