DUBAI (Trade Arabia) -- The United Arab Emirates’ Dolphin Energy will issue a $1 billion bond early next year as part of a $5 billion financing deal expected in 2009, said a report.

The company will use the cash to refinance $3.45 billion worth of existing debt and the rest for its pipeline project to deliver Qatari gas to the UAE and Oman, the London-based weekly Middle East Economic Digest (Meed) said.
As well as the $1 billion bond, Dolphin will raise $500 million from Islamic financing resources, Meed said, quoting unnamed sources close to the project.
The financing deal should be launched in late January and is expected to close in April. Dolphin Energy could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters.
The $4.8 billion Dolphin project linking Qatar’s giant North Field with the United Arab Emirates and Oman was the first cross-border gas project in the Persian Gulf Arab region.
It pumps around 2 billion cubic feet per day to the UAE. Mubadala Development Co, owned by the government of the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, owns 51 per cent of Dolphin while France’s Total and U.S. Occidental each have a 24.5 percent stake.