22 July 2014
Nakilat-Keppel Offshore & Marine (N-KOM) has secured a QR69mn contract to design and construct a floating jetty for Qatar Primary Materials Company (QPMC) at Ras Laffan.

N-KOM is a joint venture shipyard established by Nakilat and Singapore's Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M).

Scheduled for completion in early 2015, the floating jetty is the first project that N-KOM will be undertaking for QPMC.

The floating jetty at Ras Laffan Industrial City (RLC) will be QPMC's second floating jetty in Qatar, with another jetty project ongoing in Lusail and Gabbro berths in Mesaieed. Serving as an offloading point for aggregates, the jetty will be in close proximity to the stockpile located within the industrial city.

N-KOM has been contracted for the engineering, procurement, installation and construction (EPIC) of the floating jetty. Once complete, the jetty will have an annual aggregates handling capacity of 7.8mn tonnes.

Commenting on the significance of the project to the country's infrastructure development, QPMC chairman Abdulaziz al-Ansari said, "QPMC is honoured to be working with a home-grown company on our second floating jetty development project. We believe this contract will contribute towards the further strengthening of our business ties as well as our capabilities to support Qatar's construction boom by distributing gabbro storage areas within the state and to facilitate traffic routes between Doha and Mesaieed used by truck's gabbro transportation and convert them to other areas less dense traffic."

Chairman of N-KOM and managing director of Nakilat Abdullah Fadhalah al-Sulaiti said, "Through deployment of best international practices, N-KOM is committed to delivering a high-quality project to QPMC in a safe, timely and reliable manner. With our API-certification and a solid track record of infrastructure engineering and construction projects completed for local oil and gas players, our strategy is to continue providing world-class services to our local customers and to expand our scope become a strong international operator.

"Our commitment to providing high-quality products, to reliability and to safe operations will continue to allow us to position ourselves as the preferred shipyard delivering solutions."

© Gulf Times 2014