Ports Of Oman

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Our topic for today is Ports of Oman. So, in todays lecture we are going to learn about the most important PORTS OF OMAN. If you can remember in your ESP READING, classes you have been learning about ports. Now let us recall the information we have learned: a port is any city or town where ships load or unload their cargo or passengers. It is often referred to as a harbour. Oman is located on the mid western Indian Ocean with 2092 km of coastline. For centuries, Oman's Ports have sheltered and traded with ships from all over the world. Strategically located between the great civilizations of Babylonia, Egypt, Africa, India and the Far East, Omani ports rose to prominence in the 10th century when Omani merchant fleets traded as far away as China. There are 8 ports in Oman these do not include the many small fishing village ports along the coastline. After I have listed the ports, I will discuss 4 of these in detail. The 8 ports of Oman are: Port Sultan Qaboos, Port Salalah, Port Sohar, Port Khasab, Port Shinas, Port Duqm and the last two are specialised ports handling petroleum: Minah al Fahal in Muscat and Qalhat LNG (Sur) which handles the loading of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). Of course there are others, like Port Masirah , but these are non commercial ports. The first port I would like to discuss is Port Sultan Qaboos. It is located in Muttrah, and is the oldest of the operational ports in Oman. It covers a total area of 26.7km2. The depth of the water in the channel and the bay is 13m deep. There are 13 berths. Let us define a berth. A berth is a parking space for a vessel / ship. In the port there is a cruise terminal to handle all the visiting cruise liners. Inside this terminal is an immigration and customs office, duty free shopping and a crew centre. There are also silos for grain and cement. A silo is a large cement tower storage unit for grain, flour and other commodities. There is a private berth for HM private yacht : AL SAID1. Incorporated into the port layout is a terminal for the ferries operated by National Ferries Company (NFC), which operate weekly services between Musandam and Muscat. The port of Duqum is the largest port in Oman. It has still not been completed and will have a total area of 135 km2. The depth of the water ranges from 10m to 19m in channel and the bay. It has 26 berths and will handle up to 50 000 tons of containers annually. It is a multi purpose port. That means it can handle containers, passengers and bulk cargo such as petroleum and LNG. Shinas port is a small port in comparison with the other ports. It has an area of only 1.6km2.. The depth of the water is 10m. It is an important port because it also offers a ferry service to Musandam. It is primarily a ferry and cruise port and handles only passengers. Sohar Port is the 4th largest port in Oman. It has an area of 4.50km2. The depth of the water is 18m deep. There are 21 berths. It is also only one of three ports able to berth the mega ships. The other 2 ports are Rotterdam and Guangzhou, China. It also has silos for grain and cement. It is a multipurpose port. It handles bulk cargo like iron ore, petroleum and containers and has a dedicated terminal for Sohar aluminium. The Port of Sohar operates as a 50/50 joint venture between the Government of Oman and the Port of Rotterdam. Since opening in 2004, the number of vessels calling at the port has increased, and in 2010, it handled more than 2,200 ship movements.

IMCO/ Note Taking CAS 1 (2012) - Lecture

Intermediate Level

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Brazilian mining company Vale, the worlds largest producer of iron ore pellets, has constructed a processing plant near the port, where it will convert iron ore to steel pellets for onward export. Also iron ore will be distributed to the Middle East and North Africa from Sohar. Finally, I would like to point out some interesting points about the other ports we did not discuss. Mina al Fahal is where Crude oil and refinery products are loaded onto tankers off Mina Al Fahal. They load the oil by subsea pipeline and SBM (Single Buoy Mooring) Systems. They load 85 000 barrels per day.

Qalhat LNG exports 3.3 million tons of natural gas per annum. The port is a dedicated port to handle natural gas.
So, to wrap up, today we have learned some key facts about the Ports of Oman. That is a lot of information for today. Well look at another interesting topic in our next class.

(750 words)

IMCO/ Note Taking CAS 1 (2012) - Lecture

Intermediate Level

Page