HH Sayyid Asa’ad bin Tarik Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Affairs, Personal Representative of His Majesty the Sultan, presided over the official opening ceremony of the Port of Duqm. The Port of Duqm is now officially open for business. More mega box ships will now start calling at the port as the Port and authorities are ambitious of achieving new milestones in container handling enabling the port to be a driver of growth and a hub in the region considering the geographical advantages it has.
The Monarch of Oman envisioned the Oman 2040 vision, with a view of diversifying away from being an oil income-dependent economy in the footsteps of Dubai. Non-oil revenue is estimated to reach 3.34bn riyals or 32 per cent of total government revenue. Oman recently approved the 2022 budget with spending at $31.5bn and IMF estimates Oman’s economy to expand by 2.5%. Port of Duqm will be a key driver in achieving the milestones set by the Oman Parliament under the Monarchy in the growth of the nation’s economy.
As early as June 2009, the two parties signed their first deal for Duqm port. At the time, the development of the Port of Duqm was not yet completed and CAP controlled and supervised the final infrastructure works done by the Consortium C.C.C. /STFA and Jan De Nul (Belgium). By 2014, Consortium Antwerp Port (CAP) has successfully closed a 28-year concession agreement to operate, develop and manage the Port of Duqm and its industrial land. The port has handled 2,242 ships during the past three years, moving to “making profits in the early stages of its operation”, said Abdul Rahman Al Hatmi, chief executive of Asyad Group, which is also involved in the development of the port.
The port consists of the commercial berth, the government berth and the liquid materials berth. The total length of the breakwaters is about 8.7 kilometres, the depth of the port basin reaches 18 metres and the entry channel is 19 metres, enabling the port to receive the very large container and oil ships, Mr Al Dheeb said.
In 2017, Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) received the contract to develop the Bulk Liquid Berth Terminal. The contract included the engineering, design, procurement and construction of the bulk liquid berth terminal. Various dredging & civil activities were executed under the responsibility of Boskalis, including the deepening of the port basin to a depth of 18 meters, reclamation of new land, the construction of a quay wall with a length of one kilometer, a double berth jetty island and stone revetment. The project was completed and the terminal was handed over in 2020.
The Port currently has four automated cranes, with a capacity of up to 65 tonnes, to transport containers from ships to the commercial berth and back. Purchase of 12 bridge yard cranes with rubber tires that have a capacity of up to 41 tonnes is on the anvil. The work on supplying and installing container cranes and bridge cranes is currently 60 per cent complete and is expected to be fully done in the first quarter of 2023, the official said.
CAP’s goal is to develop general port activities with special emphasis on oil and gas. The involvement of Antwerp based companies in the development of the port of Duqm will also improve the position of Antwerp as the main gateway for petrochemicals from the Middle East. In the last decade, Antwerp/Belgium became the leading hub for the fast-growing GCC chemicals export in Europe. The market share of Antwerp is consistently increasing.
Rent-A-Port is an engineering and investment company, that is specialized in the development of marine infrastructures and industrial zones. CAP brings together the renowned expertise of Rent A Port and Port of Antwerp International. It allows Oman to rely on the best talent available in the business of port development. The positives of having Antwerp and Belgian firms involved improves the prospects of future trade between the Port of Antwerp and the Port of Duqm.
Port of Antwerp International is a subsidiary of the Antwerp Port Authority and brings to the table, its 200-year of experience and expertise in port development, management and operation. Port of Duqm will soon become a multimodal logistics hub. If their plans to invest in the Railway line materialize, then it will complement the logistics resources of the country. Nevertheless, the economy is susceptible to growth and the Port of Duqm will be a key driver of growth in the region.
