Oman Drydock wins major conversion job

The US$1.5bn shipyard, which is one of the largest and best equipped in the world, recently converted Greek-owned crude oil carrier Olympic Luck to a very large crude carrier.

“The vessel weighs more than 319,000 tonnes and is close to 314m in length. More than 1,000 men worked on the job which involved 3,000 tonnes of steelwork and was completed in around 80 days,” said Dr Abdulmalik Bin Abdullah, chairman.

ODC’s partner, Korean shipbuilding company DSME, helped with the conversion which saw bulk head covers removed and replace with new swash bulk heads to make the vessel multi-functional for more efficient loading.

ODC, launched in 2011, is located in the Middle East’s new ports and logistics city of Duqm. Its dry docks can accommodate any size of vessel and the shipyard has one of the longest docks in the Middle East at 2.8km, with room to double in size again if needed.

The yard has worked on a wide variety of ships from VLCCs to container ships, LNG and LPG carriers to chemical carriers, dredgers, RO-ROs and barges. It’s now developing its workforce and skill base, while boosting training and infrastructure and is working to become “renowned as the best drydock in the Middle East”.