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GE gets multi-million dollar contract

RAS LAFFAN —GE Oil & Gas' PII Pipeline Solutions group has been awarded a long-term, multi-million dollar contract to provide Dolphin Energy Ltd. of the UAE with integrity management services to ensure the uninterrupted operation of Dolphin's critical sea and export pipelines in Qatar.

GE will provide an integrated package of integrity engineering, inspection and data management technology to support the Dolphin Gas Project, which involves the production and processing of natural gas from Qatar's North Field, and transportation of the dry gas by sub-sea pipeline to the UAE.

GE's scope will encompass a comprehensive integrity management programme for two, 36-inch sealines which connect Dolphin's two offshore platforms to its giant gas processing plant in Qatar, each about 70 kilometres (km) long, and the 48-inch subsea export line that spans about 364 km in length from Qatar to the UAE.

Over the contract period of up to five years, GE's PII group will be responsible for ensuring the effective integrity management of Dolphin's pipelines. A key element of the initial phase of the project will be the development of Dolphin's Pipeline Integrity Management System (PIMS). The role of PIMS will be to provide the guidelines, standards and procedures that Dolphin will use to ensure the safe and continued operation of its system.

The project started in July 2007 and in the first year alone will include the development of Dolphin's PIMS, a pipeline network risk assessment, baseline inspection and condition assessments of the pipelines, and the implementation of a comprehensive, Web-based data management system. The project team will be based at GE Oil and Gas' Middle East head office in Doha, and will be supported on an ongoing basis by PII's integrity management centre of excellence in Cramlington, England.