ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, July 22 (UPI) -- Abu Dhabi natural gas firm Dolphin Energy awarded a $418 million construction contract to Russian engineering firm Stroytransgaz for a trans-Emirates pipeline.

Dolphin said in a mid-July statement it had short-listed Consolidated Contractors International Co. of Greece, Italian oil and gas firm Saipem, and Stroytransgaz of Russia for the contract.

The contract says construction on the pipeline, which will extend from Taweelah to the Gulf of Oman port city of Fujairah across the United Arab Emirates, will begin in the third quarter of 2008, Dolphin said in a news release.

The 150-mile pipeline will be one of the most extensive overland pipeline projects in the UAE. It will bring natural gas from the Persian Gulf to Oman ports, bypassing the volatile Strait of Hormuz.

Dolphin in December awarded a $200 million contract to the German Salzgitter Mannesmann International to manufacture the coated line pipes for the project.

"We congratulate Stroytransgaz on being awarded this contract, at the end of an exhaustive tender process," said Dolphin General Manager Ibrahim Ahmed al-Ansari.