Port of Fujairah building new service boat harbour

The existing seven-metre berth and floating jetty used for service vessels are subject to frequent congestion. The new facility will ease the squeeze by allowing the expansion of services such as hull and propeller cleaning as well as providing more space for service providers to moor their vessels.

Nico International, recently qualified by Shell as a centre of diving excellence in Fujairah, is on the look-out for a second diving support vessel, underling the increased demand.

Confirmation of the new harbour comes as the Fujairah Offshore Anchorage Area is being expanded to 133 positions, a process the port hopes to complete by year end after the repositioning of an undersea fibre-optic cable.

Although construction of a planned oil refinery and LNG terminal are currently on hold owing to the low oil price, other business at the port continues to increase. This will include the import and export of grain from 20 concrete silos sited in the port, as well as growing volumes of aggregates destined for Arabian Gulf export markets including Qatar and Kuwait.

Meanwhile the port continues to handle growing volumes of oil. It provides export facilities for crude oil from the Abu Dhabi Habshan field, pumped via the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline. With plenty of adjacent space, Fujairah is an increasingly important location for international oil storage firms.  

There are about 330 oil storage tanks on shore with many more planned. Storage capacity has more than doubled since the beginning of 2013 to around 9m cubic metres today. It is expected to exceed 13m cubic metres by the end of 2018.