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The joint venture of Italy-based international engineering contractor Saipem and leading Indian infrastructure firm AFCONS, has been awarded a contract to design and construct a deepwater bulk jetty at the Port of Sohar. The total investment in the project, which also includes a dredging component to be undertaken by Van Oord of The Netherlands, amounts to RO 95 million. |
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Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of the Port of Sohar, signed the agreements together with Jan Meijer, CEO of Sohar Industrial Port Company (SIPC). The investment will help create a major deepwater jetty at the Port of Sohar to support the bulk shipping needs of Brazilian mining conglomerate Vale, which is currently building a huge iron ore pelletising and distribution centre at the industrial port. With the addition of this 1,380 metre long and 25 metre deep jetty, the Port of Sohar will join a select handful of ports in the world with the capability to receive Very Large Ore Carriers of 400,000 DWT. |
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Van Oord, which has many major dredging projects to its credit including previous work done at the Port of Sohar, will increase the depth of the existing approach channel from 18.5 metres to a depth of 23 metres. A new harbour basin will also be created with a berthing pocket of 25 metres in front of the jetty. For their part, Saipem and AFCONS have set up a 50:50 joint venture to execute the construction of the jetty. Saipem will focus on the design and management of the project. The facility is set to come on stream in the first quarter of 2011 at around the same time that Vale's 1.4 billion iron ore pelletising and distribution plant will be operational. |
