The UAE’s Habshan-Fujairah pipeline has finally been completed, and is set to be loaded with oil ready for export in the months’ time.
Oil Minister Mohammed al-Hamli told reporters on Thursday that the pipeline has been filled with crude from Abu Dhabi’s onshore fields, and will initially pump oil for export at Fujairah at a rate of 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd), rising to 1.8 million.
“The pipeline is complete and now it’s being tested,” Hamli told an energy conference in Paris, telling Reuters that he expects exports to begin in August, three months ahead of a November start date previously mooted.
“It’s filled with crude now and exports will start within three months,” Hamli said, according to Reuters.
The Habshan-Fujairah pipeline is a crucial hedge for Abu Dhabi against security threats posed by Iranian posturing in the Straits of Hormuz, and offers international oil tankers around a week’s saved transit time over Abu Dhabi’s current export terminal at Jebel Dhanna.
The UAE’s flagship 400km Habshan-Fujairah ADCOP crude export pipeline runs from the ADCO fields onshore to the Fujairah export terminal nestling on the Gulf of Oman, traversing steep mountainous terrain along the way. The project comprises the pipeline, pumping stations, an oil terminal at Fujairah, offshore loading facilities and associated facilities.
The pipeline, which was scheduled for commissioning by the end of 2010 after 18 months’ construction, has been plagued by over 30 months of delays.
China Petroleum Engineering & Construction (CPEC), a subsidiary of China’s state oil company, CNPC, won the construction contract in 2008 from IPIC, after a competitive tendering process. Testing revealed 270 construction errors discovered in an inspection last year, 50 of which have been deemed critical.
ADCO – the onshore oil company for Abu Dhabi – was not previously consulted about the pipeline, despite ADCO’s crude providing the feedstock. ADCO then had to test the pipeline to its standards before commissioning.
