Dutch dredging and maritime infrastructure company Royal Boskalis Westminster has been awarded three contracts on the African subcontinent with a total value of approximately EUR100 million (US$140 million).
The largest contract was awarded in Nigeria by Saipem and involves dredging and equipment maintenance support work for an operational oil facility. Two other recently awarded projects located in Morocco and the Republic of the Congo are port-related.
Boskalis has been awarded a contract by Saipem Contracting Nigeria in the Olero Creek in Delta State, about 200 kilometres northwest of Port Harcourt. The flow stations system at Olero Creek consists of four barge-mounted processing modules to separate oil and gas from a well.
Boskalis will refurbish one of the four stations, the North Water Station, which it will tow to its own maintenance yard. Boskalis will also conduct piling work and sand pad reinstatement works in preparation for the reinstallation of the water station.
Through its local company, Nigerian Westminster Dredging and Marine, Boskalis will work closely with the main contractor Saipem. Boskalis will use its own local resources to execute the project, which is scheduled to be completed within 18 months. Key equipment which will be utilised includes a cutter suction dredger, a crane barge and dry earthmoving equipment.
Boskalis has also been assigned the contract for the extension of the port of Tangier in Morocco. The contract was awarded by BSTM, a consortium working on behalf of Tangier Mediterranean Special Agency. The project involves backfilling an area behind quay walls with approximately 5.0 million cubic-metres of borrow material that will be sourced offshore using large-sized trailing suction hopper dredgers. The project is set to commence mid-2012 and will last approximately five months.
In the Republic of the Congo, Boskalis will extend the existing breakwater of the port of Pointe Noire and execute shore protection works. The client is the Port Authority of Pointe Noire. The breakwater will require 250,000 tonnes of rock material sourced from local quarries and 25,000 tonnes of X-blocs. The project, starting in the fourth quarter of 2010 and running for approximately two years, will be executed primarily with dry earthmoving equipment.
