Dolphin Pipeline
The Dolphin project was the first cross-border gas processing plant and pipeline network to be built in the Middle East and became operational back in July 2007.
The project was brought to fruition by a private company called Dolphin Energy, which is 51% owned by Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s investment arm. Large international oil companies Total and Occidental each hold a minority stake in the development and brought technical abilities to the project.
The 364km pipeline runs from Ras Laffan on the upper tip of the Qatar peninsular, to Taweelah in Abu Dhabi, one of the Emirate’s primary electricity and desalination plants. Dolphin is now tasked with developing additional condensate storage in Qatar. Adel Al Buainain, general manager, Qatar Dolphin Energy, explained: “There are a number of common facilities shared by a number of operators in Ras Laffan, and we are managing the condensate tank storage facility. We are supervising the construction of these new facilities.” The facilities are expected to be completed by mid-2010. The Export Pipeline will initially carry 2 billion standard cubic feet a day (scf/day) of refined methane gas from Qatar. Its design capacity is 3.2 billion scf/day. Usage of the additional 1.2 billion scf/day capacity will be subject to a future agreement between Dolphin Energy and the government of Qatar.
Qatar Pearl GTL
The finishing touches are being put on the Qatar Pearl GTL project, which will be the world’s largest gas to liquids plant, converting gas into 140 000 barrels per day of clean-burning liquid transport fuel and other products. The project will also produce 120 000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of natural gas liquids and ethane.
Shell’s Andy Brown, Pearl GTL managing director, explains how the Pearl gas to liquids plant is transforming the Ras Laffan landscape.
“Pearl GTL is an enormous complex of 20 kilometres by 10 kilometres. Offshore from the Pearl site is the North Field, it’s the largest gas reserve in the world; 900 trillion cubic feet of gas, and the Pearl GTL project has been allocated a block in the North Field 24 kilometres long by 12 kilometres wide in which we are now drilling wells, that will produce gas which will come 60 kilometres through a pipeline to the Pearl GTL plant when we start up production on the project.”
Two of the world’s largest hydrocrackers are already in place in the plant, ready to turn the gas and oxygen mix into GTL products such as diesel fuels, lubricant oils, detergent feed stocks, and petrochemical feedstocks as well.
The original schedule has slipped, but construction is expected to be complete around the end of 2010 with project ramp-up then taking a further 12 months.
The Pearl GTL plant will process about 3 billion barrels-of-oil-equivalent over its lifetime. Last month saw the installation of the final heavy paraffin synthesis reactor, one of 24, made in Germany and the UAE. “Much work remains to be done, but the installation of the last reactor is an important milestone in the construction of Pearl GTL. Shipping enormous pieces of equipment and installing them with millimetre precision is a considerable feat of engineering,” says Brown.
Al Shaheen development plan
The Al Shaheen Block 5 field, which sits just shy of 80 kilometres off the Qatar coast has seen oil production grow to over 300 000 barrels per day, and for a time was generating Qatar’s largest hydrocarbon revenue stream.
The Field Development Plan (FDP) signed in 2005, has positioned Maersk Oil Qatar at the heart of QP’s oil producing future. The extension project, (2005 FDP), aims to increase production beyond the 330 000 bpd recorded in 2008, and includes an investment package estimated at US$6 billion, which covers EOR expenditure as well as infrastructure investment.
The 2005 FDP is a huge undertaking. The project encompasses the drilling of more than 160 production and water injection wells over a six year period. Fifteen new platforms were required, (several currently on barges inching their way towards Qatar’s waters from overseas international contractors).
These platforms are to be twinned with accommodation and production facilities and the whole project is to be interconnected by subsea pipelines.
“We are currently on schedule with the FDP which is a real achievement considering the size and complexity of the FDP, with significant installations and hook-ups taking place, whilst maintaining high levels of production uptime,” revealed Saad Al-Mohannadi, deputy managing director of Maersk Oil Qatar.
“We’re understandably pleased by the progress being made which is currently about 90% complete and of the cooperation with Qatar Petroleum, which has enabled such progress. 126 out of 169 planned long horizontal wells have been drilled within the FDP 2005; the drilling campaign is 75% complete,” he added.
