Facility to Serve Major East-West Shipping Routes
By Simon West
Oman Oil Marketing Co. has launched a new bunker terminal at the Port of Duqm in southern Oman, as the sultanate sets its sights on becoming one of the region’s major shipping and logistics hubs.
OOMCO, the fuels and lubricants retailing unit of state energy firm OQ, said the terminal, strategically located on the Arabian coast, would target international shipping traffic accessing some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, such as the Suez Canal, Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
The facility, also serving domestic and regional vessels, will offer three key grades of marine fuels, including low-sulphur options in line with the International Maritime Organization’s low-sulphur fuel directive, or IMO 2020. A 10,000-tonne barge will also be on hand to deliver the three grades at a pumping rate of up to 1,000 cubic meters per hour.
According to OOMCO, the port, which lies within the Special Economic Zone at Duqm, or SEZAD, already supplies vessels with pilotage, freshwater supply, waste collection, tug services, crew change, de-slopping services, ship handling and dry dock services.
“For domestic, regional and international shipping, Duqm offers a smart, efficient alternative to diverting to other ports in the region, saving time and money and avoiding the risk of further delay,” said Ali Ahmed Muqaibal, general manager at OOMCO.
Firing Up Bunker Market
The bunker fuel market in the Middle East and Africa is expected to grow by more than 12 percent by 2025, the filing said.
Responding to the launch, Rajesh Vaidyanathan, general manager at Khimji Ramdas Shipping, an Oman-based project cargo mover selected as an agent for bunker calls at Duqm, told Breakbulk that the terminal would serve the rising number of vessels being lured towards the port amid ongoing developments.
“If we consider shipments coming from the East, most of them now have to use Jebel Ali as a transit base. With the new international container terminal, Duqm could be a port call of choice for shipment to the Persian Gulf,” Vaidyanathan said.
“So we expect a sizable increase in the number of vessels that call at Duqm. Supply of bunkers is one manner in which those vessel calls can be facilitated. The strategy is sure to pay off very soon,” he said.
Duqm is one of Oman’s largest ports and main gateways for breakbulk and project cargo, last year handling almost a million tonnes of materials and equipment for industries such as oil and gas, mining, manufacturing and fishing.
SEZAD itself is fast becoming a key industrial and energy hub.
A new, 230,000-barrels-per-day oil refinery is slated to come online in 2023, and will be connected via an 80-kilometer pipeline to the Ras Markaz crude storage terminal, whose first phase storage capacity of 25 million barrels is expected to start operations next year.
OQ said in early December it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi petrochemical maker SABIC to support studies for building a new petrochemical plant at SEZAD. The plant would comprise a world-scale steam cracker unit plus facilities for ethylene and propylene production.
