Qatar has no plan to shut gas pipeline to UAE

Qatar has no plan to shut the Dolphin pipeline that transports natural gas to the United Arab Emirates despite the severing of diplomatic ties between the two Gulf Arab nations, officials in both countries said today.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain said yesterday they would cut all ties including transport links with Qatar, the world’s top seller of liquefied natural gas (LNG), accusing it of supporting terrorism. Doha denies the accusation.

Qatar supplies roughly a third of global LNG – natural gas that has been converted into liquid form for export.

Industry sources and traders were closely watching for any disruptions to natural gas supplies from Qatar to the UAE and Oman. A shutdown of the Dolphin pipeline would cause major disruptions to the UAE’s gas system.

Read: Qatar’s options

The pipeline, which links Qatar’s giant North Field with the UAE and Oman, was operating normally and officials in Doha and Abu Dhabi told Reuters there are no plans to halt gas flows.

“All is normal. There are no plans to close it,” an official at state-run Qatar Petroleum said on condition of anonymity.

Two UAE-based sources said no shutdown was planned. “It will not happen,” one source said.

The pipeline was the first cross-border gas project in the Gulf Arab region. It pumps around two billion cubic feet of gas per day to the UAE.