Abu Dhabi plans commercial yard

Abu Dhabi Ship Building Co (ADSB) in Dubai, the Middle East?s largest naval builder, may set up a new shipyard for commercial vessels to tap demand from the region?s booming offshore oil and gas industry.

“We want to cater for the offshore industry in the niche market of supply and support vessels, anchor handling vessels and specialized offshore seismic vessels,” William Stewart, vice president, marketing at ADSB said. The shipbuilder will decide next year whether to set up a separate commercial shipyard based in the Taweelah Port & Industrial Zone in Abu Dhabi.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and five other Gulf states will spend as much as $285bn on energy projects including oil and gas infrastructure between 2007 and 2011, according to figures released by Saudi-based Arab Petroleum Investment Corp (Apicorp), in May. ADSB is currently handling 200 commercial vessel repair jobs every year in the UAE.

The company, which was originally created as part of a defence deal between Newport News Shipbuilding of the US and the UAE government, expects its order book to more than double to $2.5bn by the end of 2008 from $1bn at the end of first-half of 2007. ADSB maintains all the UAE Navy?s warships and currently generates 80% of its revenue from military and paramilitary customers.