Nico Vincart, Project Manager, Jan De Nul Dredging speaks about the company's role in building and upgrading of the Duqm port complex. A report by Visvas Paul D Karra
Duqm's development as a new industrial destination hinges on the shape of the port facilities, which include a crude oil export terminal and a strategic storage facility, a free trade zone and a downstream industrial area in addition to an airport, port, dry dock, commercial and residential areas and plans for tourism development. Thanks to its proximity to the busy regional sea-lanes traversing Oman's coastal waters, Duqm is being conceived as a main maritime gateway that will serve as an ambitious industrial and commercial hub.
For the shipping industry, one of the most exciting things that is happening on this side of the Arabian Sea is the giant dry dock facility, which was opened for operations by Oman Dry Dock Company (ODC) in March this year. Most notably, the dry dock received its maiden customers namely two ships of Jan De Nul Dredging (JDN), the Belgium-based dredging company which, incidentally, has been instrumental in literally paving the way for the construction of the dock. This historic achievement was celebrated in Duqm at a grand ceremony held under the auspices of HE Said bin Hamdoon Al Harthy, Undersecretary of the Transport and Communications Ministry for Ports and Marine Affairs, in the presence of Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed al Nuaimi, Wali of Duqm and other dignitaries of the Al Wusta Region and members of ROP.
Nico Vincart, project manager, JDN, Oman Branch, commenting on this accomplishment said, "As we have been involved in construction of a part of the ship repair yard, we were honoured to be the first customers of the dry dock. We would like to thank the ministry of transport and communications (MOTC) and ODC for this unique opportunity."
Port project
Oman's Ministry Of Transport And Communications awarded a consortium of companies, which included Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), Sezai Turkes - Feyzi Akkaya Ltd (STFA) of Turkey, and JDN the contract for the maritime works for Duqm's new port in April 2007. The scope of works specifically for JDN consisted of the deepening works of approach channel together with the reclamation works behind the newly built quay walls.
All works are well ahead of schedule with only 20 per cent of the material yet to be dredged and 10 per cent of the sand to be reclaimed. The main part of the port and the entrance channel has now been dredged and the works at the ship repair yard and the commercial quay are fully completed.
Subsequently, the ministry of transport and communications also awarded the expansion work of the Duqm port complex at an additional cost of RO335mn to the same CCC-STFA-JDN consortium. The earlier contract of RO187mn together with the new contract, scales up to around RO522mn for the integrated marine works infrastructure. The investments will go towards extending the breakwaters and deepening the harbour basin and entrance channel in addition to the already existing works for construction of breakwaters, quay walls, as well as a substantial dredging and reclamation component.
The lee breakwater was also realigned and pushed out further into the sea, while the main breakwater has been lengthened, thereby creating a considerably expanded port basin. As such, the total length of the breakwaters has grown from the original 5.3 kms originally to 7.7 kms under the revised plan. The most significant impact will be on the main breakwater, which will now boast 2.25 kilometres of quay wall for commercial berths, from an earlier quay length of 700 mtrs. The commercial berths will be equipped to handle container, grain, cement, commodity, and a range of dry bulk carriers.
Dredging works
The scale of the dredging work, which began in 2007 and will be fully completed in 2012, is huge. Vincart gives some mindboggling figures: Around 70 million cubic metres of soil needs to be dredged and around 15 million cubic metres of sand has to be reclaimed behind the quay walls, as it will be very big with two breakwaters. And then you have the quay walls, the commercial quay, 2.2 kms long and the government quay, which is 1200mtrs. For the shipyard, it will be 3 kms of quay and the two graven docks (dry docks) will be 410mts long each.
The classic form of drydock, properly known as graving dock, is a narrow basin, usually made of earthen beams and concrete, closed by gates or by a caisson, into which a vessel may be floated and the water pumped out, leaving the vessel supported on blocks. The keel blocks as well as the bilge block are placed on the floor of the dock in accordance with the "docking plan" of the ship.
At the moment, five JDN vessels are doing the dredging work non-stop. Recently, one new cutter suction dredging ship arrived from Croatia to join the fleet of ships. This new vessel has three big split hopper barges. And then the company also has trailing suction hopper
dredgers on site.
Explaining about the dredging operations, Vincart says that the cut soil is put in the barges and taken to an offshore disposable area. There is a pre-identified natural pit in the sea just off Duqm and JDN is filling up this pit with the soil. For the land reclamation, sand is brought from 40kms off shore. This is good quality sand, which is dredged and brought to the shore in the hopper to reclaim the land behind the quay wall. Thus, JDN has first built the breakwater and then the quay wall and in between is the water 10 mtrs deep approximately. "We have put 10 million cubic metres of sand behind that to make a nice quay wall that is also ready now. In May 2012, we will hand over the complete port to the ministry of transport and communication," he says.
The port is already open for the dry dock operations. Commercial vessels began to arrive since October 2010. Some GIB cranes arrived for the dry dock from China. And in the dry dock, JDN barges were docked for three days. Some of the dry dock operations, which were carried out on JDN vessels, included cleaning of the hull for sea growth and then polishing of the propellers and maintenance of the engines. Effectively the dry dock is fully functional.
JDN is part of the Jan De Nul Group, which was founded in 1938 by Jan Frans Jozef De Nul as a civil construction company. Responding to the market opportunities at that time, the De Nul family accepted its first dredging work in 1951. Since then there has been no looking back.
The activities of Jan De Nul Group are based on three pillars: dredging activities, civil construction and environmental works. Jan De Nul Group has the world's most modern and most technologically advanced dredging fleet at its disposal. In 2009, Jan De Nul Group reached a turnover of 2.1bn euros (69 per cent dredging activities, 18 per cent offshore projects, 11 per cent civil works and 2 per cent environmental projects).
People and vessels. In a nutshell, that is the driving force behind Jan De Nul Group. Thanks to the 5,000 employees and its ultramodern fleet, today the group ranks at the top of the international dredging and marine related industry. Also with regard to civil engineering and environmental works, the group is one of the largest contractors in Europe.
© Oman Economic Review 2011
