Elf announced that it, along with the US company Enron, signed a strategic partnership agreement today with the United Arab Emirates Offsets Group (UOG) concerning the implementation of the Dolphin project.

The goal of the Dolphin project is to provide gas coming from Qatar to the United Arab Emirates and later, to Oman, in anticipation of a strong increase in their needs for gas in the coming years.

The initial phase for implementing the Dolphin project includes the development and start-up of gas production from the giant North Field offshore Qatar, the construction of a pipeline connecting Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai (an additional one is planned in order to supply Oman) and the realization of the necessary infrastructures for gas distribution to end consumers.

Initial annual gas production will be 15 billion cubic meters and assuming that the pipeline terminates at Dubai.

UOG will have a 51% interest in Dolphin, with Elf and Enron each holding 24.5%. In addition, the partnership agreement calls for Elf to be the upstream operator for the project and Enron the transport operator.

The actual launching of Dolphin is conditioned on the signature of all contracts defining the elements determining the economy of the project (the North Field contract, the price for the transfer of gas, etc.) The objective is to have finalized the negotiations prior to the first investments before the year-end 2000 so that first gas from the Dolphin production can be delivered in 2003.

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Totalfina (NYSE : TOT) holds approximately 95% of the share capital of Elf Aquitaine. The European Commission approved the merger between the two companies on February 9, 2000. In participating in this new strategic project in the Middle East, Totalfina confirms its interest for this region, where it already has important positions in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman.