The Port of Salalah and Oman Oil Marketing Company (omanoil) have signed a lease agreement for the development of a small to medium capacity fuel terminal in the port.
Planned to be completed by the end of 2016, the project is aimed at enabling expansion for omanoil’s bunker and trading capabilities in the port.
“This project will greatly enhance the bunkering options available in the Port of Salalah and is an important step to increasing the attractiveness of Salalah to international Shipping Lines,” CEO of Port of Salalah, David Gledhill said.
Gledhill added that the strategic location of Salalah on major shipping lanes makes it a natural location for bunkering operations, stressing that this agreement would make that possible.
“This lease agreement is a new milestone in omanoil’s decade-long history. In addition to its role in expanding our service offering within the bunker supply business, this terminal will help us realize our strategy in Oman’s southernmost Governorate and in turn our vision to serve the nation as a whole, ” comments Faisal Al Shanfari, omanoil’s Acting CEO and General Manager of Shared Services .
The agreement follows the arrival of a 18,000 TEU containership at the port, the Mayview Maersk, making Port of Salalah, the first and only port in Oman to handle a container vessel over 18, 000 TEUs.
The giant containership was delivered to Maersk Line in 2014, has a length of 399m and a capacity of 18,270 TEUS. The vessel berthed at Port of Salalah on 10 April. With the continued increase in the overall size of the vessels, such vessels are expected to be regular callers in main line hub ports.
The Port of Salalah, which is operated by APM Terminals as part of the APM Terminals Global Terminal Network, and in which APM Terminals holds a 30% share, handled 2.6 million TEUs in 2015, along with 12.5 million tons of bulk cargo.
The port has recently undergone an expansion, which doubled the quay length, and increase dry bulk capacity to 20 million tons, and liquid bulk capacity to 6 million tons annually.