Rolls-Royce, a leading provider of gas turbines for global energy markets, has announced it has won a $107 million contract from Dolphin Energy Limited. The contract is to supply six mechanical drive industrial Trent Dry Low Emission (DLE) compression packages for the $3.5 billion Dolphin Gas Project in the Middle East.
This project features a 400 km-plus sub-sea pipeline between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Shareholders in the project are the Government of Abu Dhabi with 51 per cent, Total, 24.5 per cent, and Occidental Petroleum, 24.5 per cent.
The Rolls-Royce industrial Trent packages will drive natural
gas compressors to provide front-end gas boosting for the underwater pipeline, supplying gas from Ras Laffan, Qatar, to the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Each Trent package will drive a Dresser-Rand DATUM centrifugal gas compressor.
"This project marks two very significant 'firsts'," said Tom Curley, President of the Rolls-Royce Energy Business. "It is the first time that an international energy network will connect the UAE, Qatar and Oman nations," he said, "and it marks the first installation of Rolls-Royce industrial Trent mechanical drive packages.
"We are very pleased to have been selected as a major supplier to help facilitate the trading of natural gas between these nations," said Curley.
Based on the proven aero Trent engine, the industrial Trent is the latest product for energy applications from Rolls-Royce, and the most advanced aeroderivative industrial gas turbine available today. The Dolphin project installation, which will utilise state-of-the-art Rolls-Royce dry low emission technology, represents the first application of the product in gas compression service.
The Dolphin project will initially transport two billion cubic feet per day of natural gas to the United Arab Emirates. One of the largest energy-related projects currently undertaken in the Middle East, it is projected to produce and supply natural gas to the Emirates for the next 25 years, starting in 2006.
The equipment will be packaged at the Rolls-Royce Mount Vernon, Ohio, USA facility, for delivery between the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2005. The Dresser-Rand compressors will be manufactured, and a full-load full-pressure string test conducted, at Dresser-Rand's Olean, New York, USA facility before delivery in 2005.