Saudi Aramco has announced the signing of an agreement with Lamprell, National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) and Hyundai Heavy Industries to enter into a joint venture to establishment a giant shipyard complex in Saudi Arabia.
The new JV localises essential links in Saudi Aramco’s supply chain and will lead to optimised cost and improved agility for Saudi Aramco and its affiliates.
“The yard will be the largest in the region in terms of production capacity and scale, providing an unprecedented mix of products and services in the region and enabling Saudi Aramco and its supply chain partners to meet their manufacturing, maintenance, repair and overhaul requirements for offshore oil and gas rigs, offshore support vessels, and commercial vessels, including Very Large Crude Carriers,” Saudi Armco said in a release.
The facility will have the capacity to build four offshore rigs, over 40 vessels, and service over 260 maritime products annually.
Major production operations are scheduled to commence in 2019 and full production capacity is expired to be reached by 2022.
The yard is the anchor project within the King Salman International Complex located in Ras Al-Khair, on the Kingdom’s east coast.
So, we are going to see a new ship building yard created in a location far away from sources of skilled and unskilled labour, steel, or components, at a time when world shipbuilding capacity is already too big.
What could possibly go wrong…