Iraqi firm wins contract to
develop port
By Abed
Battat
Azzaman,
2005-03-08
State-owned Ports Authority has won a $7
million contract to overhaul the southern terminal of Khor Zubair.
It is the
first time an Iraqi firm wins a contract to develop a port on the head of the
Gulf.
Under the
contract the company will remove sunken ships and modernize platforms to handle
giant tankers.
The
terminal currently handles the largest portion of Iraqi imports of Liquefied
Petroleum Gas or LPG.
Khor al-Zubair
is one of three tanker terminals in the south, with the largest being Mina
al-Bakr with a template capacity of 1.6 million barrels a day.
The
contract is good news for the local population in the area where unemployment
rates are reported to be among the highest in the country.
The Ports
Authority is under obligation not to employ foreigners in its implementation of
the contract.
Apart from
LPG imports and refined products, Khor al-Zubair also handles dry goods, but it
will be fitted with crude loading capabilities.
The
addition of crude oil loading capacity to the port is reported to be carried
out in anticipation of an expected hike in the country’s oil exports most of
which currently originate in the south.
Khor
al-Zubair terminal used to handle the country’s LPG exports which amounted to 4
million tons per year in 1990.
Sabotage
of pipelines and installations has now turned
