State-led alliance to develop Duqm fisheries port

The Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (OPAZ) has awarded a tender for the development, management and operation of a multipurpose fishing port and related projects at the Special Economic Zones at Duqm to a strategic alliance of Oman and international companies led by Fisheries Development Oman.

The alliance is a state-owned Group, supervised by Oman Investment Fund.

Together with Fisheries Development Oman (FDO), the winning group includes al Wusta Fisheries Company, Oman Food Investment Holding Company, Oman Fisheries company and Port of Duqm along with Lorient Keroman SEM which manages one of the major fishing ports in Europe.

The companies will invest an amount of $129 million to develop, manage and operate the Multipurpose Fishing Port, with the potential of expanding the facilities and services to include several operational and services aspects.

The Agreement stipulates that the winning alliance pays 15% of the annual net profits to the Authority for the management and operation of the port starting from the beginning of the third year from signing the agreement.

The Multipurpose Fishing Port is 10m deep and works are currently progressing to connect it to the road network and services facilities.

It also includes main breakwater which is 2.2km long and secondary breakwater 1.1km long and the total lengths of the Jetties are around 1.2km long, while the area allocated for the services facilities is 248,931 m2.

The Port is also equipped with tourism berth, stretching over 75000 m2 that will provide its services for tourism ships within the plan of the projects.