Middle Eastern riches

The Sultanate of Muscat & Oman first came to international attention when Maersk set up a brand new transhipment hub at the Port of Salalah. However, since then, the country seems to have acquired a thirst for this type of development, with several new projects in the pipeline.

For example, a major new port is to be built at Duqm on the Wusta coast of Muscat.A tender covering the first phase development of the project has already been launched. This will involve the construction of breakwaters and quay walls,dredging and reclamation work. As part of the second stage development, contracts will be awarded for landside and infrastructure facilities, while stage III will concentrate on the establishment of a ship repair facility.

Duqm Port will be located at Ras Duqm, which is approximately 7km from the town of Duqm Driving the development is the need to create a facility capable of serving a new industrial and commercial area in the immediate vicinity. The sultanate has appointed Royal Haskoning, in association with Khatib and Alawi, as consultants for project sponsor, the Ministry of Transport & Communications.

Initial work will encompass construction of two breakwaters some 5km in length protecting a 700m long multi-purpose quay, which will handle containers, general cargo and dry bulk, and also a 330m long quay required for use by government vessels. These will be built using reclaimed land on which it is eventually intended to deploy electrically operated rail-mounted quayside cranes.

Major dredging work means that the harbour basin will be able to accommodate vessels drawing 16m of water, while the approach channel will have a draught of 17m.

In addition to these commercial activities, it is also planned to build a major ship repair yard, taking advantage of the port’s proximity to the busy regional sea-lanes traversing Oman’s coastal waters to drum up business.

Furthermore, in September, Oman International Container Terminal opened for business at the port of Sohar ahead of schedule. It covers an area of 28ha, has 520m of quay and can accept vessels drawing up to 16m of water. The terminal, which is owned by Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), has an annual capacity of 800,000 teu. It is equipped with four super-post-panamax quayside gantry cranes and eight RTGs.

It will enable HPH to offer an alternative transhipment facility for containerships on east-west routes that currently operated by APM Terminals further along the coast at Salalah.

However,Sohar’s activities are not entirely confined to container handling. Also due to commence operations in September is Sohar Industrial Port (SIP)’s Terminal A, which aims to attract investment from petrochemical and other industrial companies. To date, $15bn has been pledged for various projects within the complex.

Interestingly, SIP will be managed by Sohar Industrial Port Company (SIPC) for 25 years on a concession basis; SIPC is a joint venture between local business and the Port of Rotterdam, which has extensive experience in handling major industrial ports.