Qatar’s feat of marine engineering

By Zia Khan /Staff ReporterQatar has unveiled the first-ever indigenously-built barge - a solid submergible platform to load and unload vessels from cargo ships - in a move described as a  milestone in the country’s short but eventful marine engineering history.“It is something we all are proud of…It’ll go a long way in helping us realise our big dreams,” said HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada as he inaugurated the facility named Al Ghatroushah.The barge is at the Erhama Bin Jaber al-Jalahma Shipyard at the  Ras Laffan Port’s Southern Breakwater close to Al Khor town.Officials who were instrumental in the project’s implementation told reporters that the production of barges was to meet local demand at the moment but expressed hope that exports were possible as well in the future. Capable of handling 10,425 tonnes of cargo simultaneously and measuring 140m in length, the barge has been built as part of a $3bn project that includes developing six phases of the state-of-the-art shipyard.Owned by Qatar Petroleum, both the shipyard and the barge were designed and built by Nakilat Damen Shipyard Qatar (N-DSQ), a consortium having expertise in constructing high value vessels.The minister termed Al Ghatroushah  “a remarkable achievement in the history of Qatar’s marine engineering”,  hoping it would open new avenues of success in future.“Tremendous efforts have gone into the project…it is indeed a very special occasion and will definitely open doors for more and more success,” al-Sada said talking to media after addressing the naming ceremony.Besides building this giant barge the production of workboats - machine-powered marine vehicles to pull both ships and the platform onshore - has also begun in the country and already three units have been delivered to the Qatar Petroleum.As many as 19 more boats, the energy minister revealed, were likely to be ready for handing over to the Qatar Petroleum during the year.He promised that the Qatar government would continue to put money into such projects in the future as well. “We did that in the past and will continue to do that,” al-Sada added. Officials at the N-DSQ told reporters during an exploratory visit of the under-construction shipyard that most of the work had been completed during the past two years and the rest was scheduled to be finished in as much time in future.The shipyard  has the latest facilities, including workshops for the maintenance of the ships and the barge and pipelines for refilling.The 6,500-tonnee load-out and recovery barge took 1.6mn man hours to complete and not a single Lost Time Incident (LTI) was recorded throughout the process, a company statement said.The barge now forms part of the shipyard’s infrastructure and would be used for the launch and recovery of boats by N-DSQ, which is building 19 workboats up to 32 metres in length for the Mesaieed Port.