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Nass Marine, Al Jazeera Shipping enter BD1m deal at Petrotech

Al Jazeera Shipping Company and Nass Marine Services Co. entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to construct two barge units.

The signing ceremony was held at the Nass Corporation Stand today at the the 9th Middle East Refining and Petrochemicals Conference and Exhibition (Middle East Petrotech 2014) held from May 18 to 21 under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.

The project is expected to cost one million Bahrainin Dinars.

“Construction of the two 180 feet barges will start during the month of May 2014 and is expected to be launched after four months”, said Ali Hassan Mahmood, Managing Director of Al Jazeera Shipping Company.
We have many projects coming up in Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq to name but a few, he added. The current project is the beginning of another optimistic phase. The MoU with Nass Marine, is value added down the line. It would sure be a boost to the Bahrain economy. We are major part of the economic cycle.

He told the Bahrain News Agency that Bahrain's economy would have a positive impact with the operations picking up. With the government focusing on dredging and housing, all sectors of the economy are expected to see a quantum jump. This would also give a fillip to employment potentials in the Kingdom.
"The employment potentials at the base – we are a Bahrain-based company – are very encouraging. More projects outside would have a positive impact on the employment potentials back home. Look at Iraq for example, it has opened up and is now moving to a large market," he added.

Asked about the potentials and the uptake in the Iraqi market, he said, the elections will expectedly pave the way for a huge opening of the Iraqi market – including oil and gas as well as the infrastructure. The single buoy mooring in Iraq's port facility has pushed the oil and gas exports by more than double in the past two years. The income from this has helped push the infrastructure – including housing, jetties and boat yards. Their one fall back was in the power sector. However, they are gradually overcoming that drawback as well.

Al Jazeera Shipping Company's has a history spanning over years in the maritime, offshore and oil industry. It has a fleet strength of over 150 units – comprising various sizes and types of tugs, barges and other equipment.

Talking about the impact of the MoU, Nass Marine Services General Manager, David Mckay said, “Using the show as a platform to display our industrial competitive capability to the regional market, we guarantee that we comply with the highest standard of construction. This barge order brings additional work and stability to Nass Marine and continues our efforts to provide quality and cost effective shipbuilding and repair services.”

The exhibition was very positive for us, he added. Ship repair is another major area for Nass Marines, he added. The overall cost of the MoU project is BD1 million

In other areas of expansion for Nass Marines, he said the company was looking at ship repair. Asked by the BNA if that was not in direction competition with Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard (Asry), he said, "We are not in direct competition with Asry. That is a ship repair yard for vessels over a 1000 ton in weight. The market potential is for repair of craft and vessels under a 1000 tons. When they have a request for a lower craft they can refer that to us. The waiting list in Asry for smaller vessels is rather expensive and we see this an opportunity to cash in on," he added.

The company is also interested in recycling – tugs, vessels, platform barges. Bahrain has no facility for recycling of lower vessels. "We are at the moment studyingh the environmental regulations. We will also expand into the repair of barges. The feedback we have had from the port authorities is very fruitful. The port authorities wants the barges lying idle cleaned and tidied up. We are keen on completing this," said McKay.

Looking at the environmental aspect of recycling, he said the recycling cannot happen on the slip way, "so we are looking at the land closer to the slipway. At the end of the slipway we need to get int into the water so we cannot be away from the slipway. The initial cost of the expansions, which is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2015 BDD 1.5 million to BD2 million.

Four Nass group companies, Nass Industrial Services, Nass Marine, Sarens Nass and Gulf Demolition and Recycling Company took part in this exhibition to display their specialist turnkey capability to the fast growing Petroleum, Oil and Gas Business sector.
Source: BNA