MUSCAT, OCT 8 - Port Services Corporation (PSC), which operates and manages Muscat’s Mina Sultan Qaboos, says its foresees no glitches in the smooth transfer of operational and management control of the nation’s oldest gateway to a new licensee effective from around the end of this year.
The transition, coming amid an anticipated spike in cruise ship calls at the height of the winter cruise tourism season, is set to bring to an end partly government-owned PSC’s roughly four decades-long reign as the operator of the Sultanate’s first commercial port.
A publicly listed company, PSC revealed last week via a filing to the Capital Market Authority (CMA) that it would stick to its previously announced strategy to go into liquidation effective from January 1, 2018, upon the expiry of its current license to operate the port on December 31, 2017.
Operation and management of the port, as announced by the Ministry of Transport and Communications on Saturday, will transfer to Oman Global Logistics Group (Asyad), the government-led transport and logistics sector flagship.
“We expect a smooth handover to Asyad Group primarily because we anticipate that the bulk of the technical and operations staff, who are key to the smooth running of the port, will essentially move to the new operator,” said an official at PSC. “The marine and shore assets critical to the smooth operation of the port will remain in place as well, effectively meaning that it will be ‘business as usual’ when the transition takes place.”
It is expected that a new entity will be created within Asyad to oversee the operation and management of Mina Sultan Qaboos with effect from January 1, 2018. Longer-term, this entity or its spin-offs are also likely to assume operation of smaller government-managed ports, such as Khasab Port in Musandam Governorate, and potentially a number of piers as well, located elsewhere along the Sultanate’s coast that support the operations of National Ferries Company (NFC), also an Asyad subsidiary.
The assurance of a smooth transition from PSC to Asyad will be well-received by elements of the shipping community that still depends on Mina Sultan Qaboos for the few types of commercial vessels that can still be handled in Muscat pending the port’s imminent conversion into a major waterfront destination.
A number of cruise liners ferrying thousands of passengers will be calling at Muscat port towards the end of this year and into 2018, when the 2017-2018 cruise tourism season peaks. Although the vast bulk of the port’s commercial shipping traffic has relocated to Sohar Port, PSC continues to handle a limited number of vessel types, which include bulk grain vessels, bitumen vessels, vegetable oil vessels, cement vessels, livestock vessels, and visiting naval vessels.
Conrad Prabhu
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