US and Italian yards gun for Iraqi navy

US and Italian shipyards are rumoured to be favourites to win tenders to build 19 ships and patrol boats for the fledgling Iraqi navy to enable it to take over security of Iraq’s vital off-shore oil terminals. The tender calls for 15 patrol boats, four corvettes and two off-shore support vessels to be acquired under a two-year equipment acquisition programme that would boost the navy’s ability to protect the platforms from terrorist attack.

At present, the Iraqi Navy is critically short of seaworthy ships to patrol potential terrorist targets, such as the Basra Oil Terminal and the smaller Khor al-Amaya terminal, and it hopes that, by 2008/2009, it will be in a position to take control of maritime security.

The two platforms in the Northern Arabian Gulf are the economic centre of Iraq, pumping some 1.6 million barrels per day into the holds of tankers berthed alongside and generating most of the government’s revenues. Currently, they are guarded by US, British and Australian warships and a lone Iraqi patrol boat that has to sail three hours from the country?s only blue water port, Umm Qasr, to get to the platforms. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, the navy is being rebuilt and its sailors trained by a British-led naval team at their base in Umm Qasr.

Italian shipyard Fincantieri confirmed on Friday it was taking part in a tender process to build four patrol vessels worth about $103 million and said it believed it had a ?good chance? of winning. “The negotiations are in an advanced phase but have not yet been finalised,” said a spokesman for the shipyard, which is 98.8% owned by the Italian government. The US shipyard is believed to be Bollinger Shipyards, which has built the U.S. Coast Guard’s patrol fleet.

An attempt by an Iraqi state company to build patrol boats has not been successful. One of the boats failed sea trials; another still under construction sits on a trestle at Umm Qasr. British officials there said they were poorly designed and unsafe.