Abu Dhabi Ports signs pact with Adnoc unit to manage oil spills

The agreement extends to sea areas around all ports owned and managed by Abu Dhabi Ports

The new terminal is part of ambitious plans for Khalifa Port, which replaced Abu Dhabi’s 1960s-built Port Zayed as the emirate’s main container port in 2012. Courtesy: Abu Dhabi Ports

Abu Dhabi Ports has signed a pact with Adnoc Logistics & services, a unit of the state-owned oil firm, to help it manage big oil spills at ports in the emirate.

Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding, Adnoc will help Safeen, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Ports, to handle tier-two oil spill incidents through containment, cleaning and maintenance activities, it said in a statement on Saturday. The tier-two spills involve larger areas of water and greater quantities of oil, which require a different set of technical expertise, than smaller tier-one spills, which Safeen is capable of controlling, it said.

“Safeen has developed an integrated system to ensure health, safety, and the environment are of the utmost importance,” Hamad Al Maghrabi, the marine services operations general manager at the company said. “The MoU with Adnoc allows us to further uphold our commitment to the wider port and maritime community, ensuring the seas of the UAE are kept clean and safe.”

The agreement extends to sea areas around all the ports owned and managed by Abu Dhabi Ports. Under the new agreement, Adnoc will have access to Abu Dhabi Port storage facilities, in order to respond quickly to any tier-two oil spill incidents, according to the statement.

Established in 2006, Abu Dhabi Ports, is the master developer, operator and manager of commercial and community ports within the emirate of Abu Dhabi.  In addition to the Port of Fujairah, it manages the port facilities at the trade and logistics hub, Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi.

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Abu Dhabi Ports, in March, signed a pact with Russia to strengthen trade ties and attract Russian companies to invest in the emirate’s free zones.

The MoU between the port operator and Russia’s Trade and Economic Development Council seeks to raise awareness about investment opportunities in Kizad and Khalifa Port Free Trade Zone.

The UAE is looking to drive economic diversification and foreign investment through its free zones by developing infrastructure to create a logistics hub. Last year, Abu Dhabi Ports got a $300 million investment from China. In 2016, it signed a $738m deal with China’s Cosco Shipping to build and operate a second terminal at the Khalifa port.

The deal with the unit of China’s biggest shipping group will start with initial capacity of 2.5 million 20-foot containers in 2019, and has an option to increase that to 3.5 million.