Oman Drydock to tie up with major services provider

Conrad Prabhu -

MUSCAT, MARCH 21 -

State-owned Oman Drydock Company (ODC) — part of Oman Global Logistics Group (OGL) — is preparing to partner with a leading international marine engineering services provider aimed at adding a specialist market segment to its diversified portfolio of ship repair and maintenance services.

According to a key official of the Duqm-based yard, five prominent marine engineering services firms based in Europe and the Far East are currently in contention for a partnership arrangement with ODC.

¬“We are looking at a long-term technical cooperation agreement (with the selected party),” said Dr Ahmed al Abri (pictured), Deputy CEO — Operations, Oman Drydock Company. “Through this partnership arrangement, we aim to target a completely different market segment of special sea vehicles, such as subsea projects, semi submersibles, offshore structures, vehicles for underwater operations, and so on,” he added.

The pact, set to be formalised next week, comes on the heels of a landmark joint venture agreement inked last November between ODC and Babcock International Group, the leading engineering support services organisation of the United Kingdom. The JV will help enhance the Duqm yard’s ability to provide a range of superior marine engineering services to visiting vessels from British and international naval fleets.

According to Dr Al Abri, around 447 ships of various types and sizes have so far been handled at ODC’s high-tech facilities for maintenance and repairs since it was launched in 2011. “We hope to reach the landmark figure of 500 vessel dry-dockings to date sometime this year,” he said, noting that the yard has delivered a 15 – 25 per cent improvement in its bottomline over the 2015-2016 timeframe.

Although dry-docking and refurbishment contracts were numerically lower last year than in 2015, the cumulative volume of business generated at the yard was nevertheless heartening, he said. This was primarily because of a trio of major conversion jobs handled at the yard. Conversions typically extend over a couple of multiple months and take up much of the yard’s labour resources, thus keeping the facility busy, he explained.

Importantly, next week’s scheduled technical partnership arrangement, the official said, will represent a significant step-up in ODC’s growing capabilities to handle a wider variety of vessels and marine structures at the yard.

Having launched operations with a focus on dry-docking and maintenance of all kinds of cargo ships and commercial vessels, ODC has since added conversions and industrial fabrication to its portfolio of offerings. More recently, this capability has been broadened to include Floating Production Storage & Offloading (FPSO) vessels and Floating Storage & Offloading (FSO) units, he said.

“We have now decided to strategise and get into something more complex by partnering with a well-established and reputable engineering services provider,” the official remarked.

In its sights, said Dr Al Abri, are the promising markets of India and Iran which are expected to take advantage of their geographical proximity to Oman to get their special marine vessels and structures refurbished at the Duqm yard.

Also underscoring its varied capabilities, ODC is undertaking its first-ever onshore steel fabrication contract as part of a project for Petroleum Development Oman’s (PDO) Rabab Harweel Integrated Project. The estimated $10 million fabrication job will enable ODC to compete for more complex fabrication opportunities that will arise when construction begins on the $6 billion Duqm Refinery project, he said.

Asked about the status of a longstanding plan for the addition of a floating dock to its world-class facilities at Duqm, the official stated: “The floating dock is still in the planning stages, but instead of actually constructing it, we felt it would be better to acquire one because there’s a large inventory of floating docks available at excellent prices.”