Thursday, March 11, 2004

Gulf Cobla - a leading company engaged in dredging, survey and reclamation - is considering expanding its operations in Iran.

General Manager Hendrik Jan de Kluiver said: "Iran has great potential in dredging work and we are exploring the possibilities for more dredging work in there."

De Kluiver said Gulf Cobla has played an active role in dredging activities in the Middle East for 40 years.

The UAE has been a focal point of the company's activities since the 1980s. Over the years, Gulf Cobla has undertaken and successfully completed projects in most of the GCC countries.

Gulf Cobla yesterday received a new cutter suction dredger, which is the first professional heavy duty cutter suction dredger built in the Middle East.

The company contracted with Abu Dhabi Ship Building for the design and construction of the cutter suction dredger in late 2002. Currently, Gulf Cobla operates a fleet of cutter suction dredgers, floating auxiliary equipment and work boats.

It mainly focuses on small to medium size dredging projects in the Middle East.

Talking about the new dredger, De Kluiver said it can be deployed for the dredging of sandy and rock composite seabed for the maintenance and construction of ports, harbour basins, channels and intake trenches.

It can also be deployed to retrieve seabed material for the reclamation of land and stockpiling of material for various purposes.

This particular vessel is specially designed and constructed to withstand the harsh conditions in the Middle East, both climatologically and geographically.

The soil conditions in the Middle East often require high energy input in order to break the ground in smaller pieces prior to hydraulically transporting the material to a discharge location.

This new dredger will help the company expand its operational range and improve availability, reliability and stability of its dredging operations, said De Kluiver.

Gulf News