Construction work on the marine infrastructure of a Bulk Liquid Berth in the Port of Duqm is progressing on schedule and within agreed costs, according to key executives associated with the strategically vital project.
Boskalis Westminster (Oman) LLC, the local subsidiary of the global dredging and marine infrastructure services provider Boskalis Westminster, is undertaking the execution of the project at a cost of around RO 200 million on behalf of the Special Economic Zone Authority of Duqm (SEZAD). Representing SEZAD as its technical consultant is Worley Parsons, the Australian headquartered international engineering services giant.
High-level executives of both Boskalis Westminster and Worley Parsons gave an overview of the Bulk Liquid Berth project at the Port Development Middle East Conference, which opened at the Sundus Rotana Muscat on Monday. The three-day event, organised by IQPC Events, focuses on digitisation, automation and decarbonisation trends across the regional shipping and maritime industry.
According to Andrew Batty, Engineering Manager — Worley Parsons, the project centres on the construction of four liquid product berths on a pair of double-berth island jetties, as well as three bulk products berths on a roughly 1-kilometre-long quay wall. Additionally, the port basin will be dredged to a depth of 18 metres to allow for the handling of vessels ranging in tonnage from 2,150 DWT to 168,000 DWT (Suezmax).
The Bulk Liquid Berth, when fully operational, will enable the export of refined petroleum products and byproducts from Duqm Refinery — an anchor project of the SEZ — to be exported out of Duqm to global markets. The berth will also enable the handling of all kinds of petroleum, petrochemical and chemical liquids at the Port of Duqm, thereby strengthening its role as a multipurpose port with container, dry bulk, RO-RO, and project cargo handling capabilities as well.
As the main contractor, Boskalis Westminster will dredge a staggering 35.5 million cubic metres of seabed material to make way for the Bulk Liquid Berth, as well as deepen the basin to allow for large tankers to call at the port. Also as part of the contract, around 10 million cubic metres of the material will be used for reclamation as well, according to Bart Propper, Project Director — Boskalis.
Together with main subcontractor Sixco LLC (BESIX), the company will also build 980 metres of quay wall that will require over 5,500 blocks for revetment and over 2.5 km of rock revetment. Excavated material is also being used to raise land levels onshore to create future land for the port’s use.
Upon the completion of the marine infrastructure, Duqm Refinery will proceed with the construction of storage tanks and other facilities for the handling of bulk liquids on the reclaimed land. These bulk liquids originating from the Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries zone are destined for export. Examples of refined products to be handled at the Liquid Berth include naphtha, jet fuel, diesel, High Sulfur Fuel Oil (HSFO), LPG, coke and sulfur.
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