Sohar Port's Reclamation Scheme To Lead To Upsizing Of Burgeoning Petrochemicals Cluster

Sohar Port's reclamation scheme to lead to upsizing of burgeoning petrochemicals cluster

18-Nov-16

Sohar Port is gearing up for billions of dollars in new investment upon the completion of a major land reclamation scheme that will lead to a significant upsizing of the industrial hub’s burgeoning petrochemicals cluster, as per Oman Daily Observer.
A long-awaited tender for the so-called Majees land reclamation project is expected to be floated next month, paving the way for an estimated 150 hectares of reclaimed land to be made available for new petrochemicals related investment.

Confirmation of the timeline for the execution of the keenly anticipated project came in comments published by the Construction Week Online attributed to Sohar Port & Freezone Chief Executive Officer Mark Geilenkirchen. The online publication quoted Geilenkirchen as stating that the reclamation project, part of the logistics hub’s ambitious Sohar 2040 expansion master-plan, is targeted for completion by November 2018.
At the heart of the project is a plan for the construction of a roughly 1.5 kilometre-long shore protection bund to create a rectangular-shaped piece of reclaimed real estate between the Southern Breakwater and the protection wall of the existing seawater intake and outfall system at Sohar Port. Adjoining the Petrochemicals Cluster on one side, and the liquids hub of Oiltanking Odfjell Terminals & Co LLC (OOT) on another, the newly claimed land is expected to accommodate an array of new petrochemicals-related investments as well as the expansion plans of the adjacent liquid terminal.

Significantly, the reclamation scheme is part of a broader initiative, enshrined in the Sohar 2040 Masterplan, to enlarge the geographical size of the industrial port area by around 50 per cent via expansions to the north and south of the port. This would effectively add in excess of 1,000 hectares to the port’s existing acreage of around 2,000-hectares, almost all of which has already been leased or committed to investors or service providers. The expansion, starting with the Majees Reclamation Project, is expected to secure the hub’s continued growth for the next 25 years, it is pointed out.
As with the implementation of Vale’s deepwater bulk jetty, the Majees Reclamation Project is expected to be funded by Sohar Port’s investment arm, Sohar International Development Company (SIDC). A special purpose vehicle set up expressly for this initiative will oversee the execution of this key piece of infrastructure, it is learnt.
In addition to the construction of the shore protection bund, a substantial dredging and reclamation component is envisaged as well. The bund, when in place, will allow for new jetties catering either to the expanding requirements of Oiltanking Odfjell Terminals (OOT) or for the captive use of new investors setting up operations on the reclaimed land.

As the reclaimed land will be contiguous with the Petrochemicals Cluster, it’s understood that almost all of the new investments planned with the reclamation area will be petrochemicals or liquids related.