Abstract
Dolphin Energy Limited (DEL) is a Gas processing and distribution organization that produces and exports over 2.1 billion scfd of sales quality natural gas to the UAE and Oman from the State of Qatar. From inception to completion and full operation, the project took seven years to complete.
Once construction began, the DEL project consumed some 125 million man-hours (onshore and offshore) over a period of 5 years to complete at a cost of around $US 5 billion. The facilities involved two offshore platforms each with 12 wells, two 80 km 36 inch underwater wet gas pipelines from the platforms to the onshore plant, a four train onshore sour gas processing plant, a 364km 48 inch subsea, export gas pipeline from Ras Laffan, Qatar to Taweelah UAE, a gas receiving facility and a DEL managed distribution network which supplies gas to the UAE and Oman.
The two offshore platforms were the first facilities to be constructed to allow for drilling of production wells so that wet gas supply would be available to the staged processing trains onshore as they became available. The commissioning and start-up of the onshore plant and handover of processing units was executed in phases to maximise unit readiness and minimise exposure impact on the construction workforce.
This lengthy Simultaneous Operations (SIMOPS) period offered a number of major challenges from an overall risk management perspective. A number of risk control measures were successfully implemented to manage the work resulting in a controlled start-up and absence of any serious incidents and very good overall HSE performance.
