Zayed Port to lease site

Abu Dhabi - Zayed Port will lease the new facility to Gulf Marine Services for three years.

Abu Dhabi Ports has signed a contract with Gulf Marine Services (GMS) that will see the creation of a state-of-the-art facility at Zayed Port. GMS will construct and maintain its offshore support vessels that serve the region's oil and gas industry from the new site.
Zayed Port will lease the new facility to GMS for three years. GMS is the largest operator of self-propelled self-elevating support vessels (SESVs), also known as jackup barges, in the world.
The company's construction and maintenance yard is currently located in Mussafah. The new site is double the size, increasing the yard to 42,500 square feet.
Zayed Port's location is operationally more efficient, with access to the sea requiring just one day's passage instead of up to six days required from Mussafah due to tidal conditions. All vessel construction, repairs and mobilisations will be carried out from the new yard.
The move will be phased between now and March 2016 when the company's new build vessel, GMS Sharqi, is scheduled for completion at the Zayed Port site. GMS' head office will remain in Mussafah and the yard there will be used for supplementary purposes.
Zayed Port recently witnessed a makeover after container and RoRo (roll-on/roll-off) cargo traffic was moved from there to Khalifa Port. The space freed up by this transition paved the way for the GMS facility.
"GMS' new facility at Zayed Port is the latest extension of Abu Dhabi Ports' significant services to the exploration and production sector. Zayed Port and two adjoining ports?- Free port and New Freeport?- are playing a major role in important services to this sector," said Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports.
"As the maritime business enabler in the emirate, Abu Dhabi Ports seizes new opportunities in the maritime industry to expand our areas of business," he added.
Duncan Anderson, CEO of GMS, said: "We have been very busy at our current yard, having increased our SESV fleet size from nine to 13 since 2014. By the end of 2016, we will have added another two vessels. We were searching for a new location that would allow us to continue our business strategy to grow our fleet and operations and to make further improvements to our build process, while offering competitive and flexible offshore support solutions to our national and international oil and gas clients."
- business@khaleejtimes.com

• Infrastructure