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Duqm and the Naval Dockyard – Sustainment at Reach
David Heley
Head of Business Development, Duqm Naval Dockyard,
Babcock International Group
Half way down the coast of the Sultanate of Oman, roughly equidistant between Muscat and the southern port of Salalah, lies the port of Duqm. Less than ten years ago this site was just a small fishing port, with the rolling wastes of the Omani desert at its back and the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean to its front. In 2017, the Port of Duqm is at the centre of the largest infrastructure development ever undertaken by the Sultanate of Oman,
a project designed to spearhead the country’s drive to diversify the economy away from its heavy dependence on hydrocarbons.
Backing up the port development is 2,000 km² of land earmarked for a diverse range of industrial infrastructure projects, including mineral extraction, manufacturing, and petrochemical plants,
under the umbrella name of the Special Economic Zone At Duqm (SEZAD). A car drive through this area now reveals a seething hive of thousands of earth moving trucks and diggers working round the clock to turn the desert into a thriving industrial complex to support economic diversification. Since 2008, $1.7 billion dollars has been invested in the port alone, and it now boasts some of the most state of the art docking and berthing facilities of any port in the Middle East.
Why has Duqm and its Naval Dockyard become such an important development in such a short space of time? The location of the port is central to its original selection for development and its subsequent rapid expansion. In geostrategic terms it sits astride what has been referred to as the ‘Global Energy Interstate’, that fundamentally important artery connecting the Far East to the Middle East and the latter to Europe. From here ships can access the Straits of Hormuz, the Bab El Mendaab and Gulf of Aden, and the East African seaboard with ease. It is, therefore, difficult to overplay its fundamentally important strategic location. This has driven the rapid development of the commercial port, which now plays host to up to a hundred ships a year (including ULCC size), and this is
A deep‐water, purpose built facility, Duqm sits astride the ‘Global Energy Interstate’ of the Indian Ocean and Gulf
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Society of Maritime Industries Annual Review 2017
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