Oil industry welcomes arrival of new drydock

KEVIN MAYHEW NAMPORT’S FIRST public/private partnership has resulted in the arrival of floating dock Lara 1 in Walvis Bay to extend repair facilities at the port. The acquisition – to be renamed NAMDOCK – is a joint venture with international ship repair company Elgin, Brown & Hamer Namibia which will manage the facility. It will lift vessels up to 150m in length, 25m beam and displacing 8500 metric tons. The additional capacity it provides for ship repairs will immediately create around 100 employment opportunities upstream and further jobs downstream, according to the manager, marketing and strategic business development, Jerome Mouton. “Namport seized the opportunity when it saw the need for a dry dock in the region to meet the demand. The speed with which we managed to introduce the joint venture reflects the flexibility and ability of Namport to take advantage of opportunities that give the port an edge over others in its sphere of operations,” he said. News of the increased ship repair capacity in Namibia has received favourable interest from the oil industry off Angola and already the first rig has arrived for repairs.