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MEDCO Launches Self-Propelled Rock Cutter Dredge Al Jarraf

On October 27 Middle East Dredging Company Q.S.C (MEDCO formerly Qatar Dredging Company) launched the cutter dredge Al Jarraf Arabic for The Dredging Vessel.

MEDCO is a partnership between the Qatari company United Development Company (UDC) Qatar Holding and the Belgian DEME group.

A formal naming ceremony is planned for early 2011. The company plans to use the dredge in infrastructure projects in the Arabian Gulf and beyond.

The Al Jarraf is self propelled which eliminates the need for tugs to move it from project to project. The heavy duty dredge has a total installed power of 12860 kW. The company sees the combinaton of these characteristics as making the dredge uniquely capable of dredging hard rock formations typical in the Arabian Gulf.

An integrated barge loading facility provides extra flexibility allowing discharge through floating pipeline and into the adjacent barge. Increased discharge power will allow longer pumping distances when pumping ashore.
The dredge dimensions are 102 by 21 meters (335 by 69 feet) with a dredging depth up to 30 meters (98 feet).

A dredge identical to the Al Jarraf is under construction at the same ASL Shipyard in Singapore. The new vessel will be named Amazone. The dredges are part of the DEME group’s 2008-2012 investment program which involves the construction of 15 dredging and marine engineering vessels.

Seven vessels have been commissioned by DEME so far. The other eight vessels under construction include apart from the Al Jarraf and Amazone the 5000-cubic-meter gravel hopper dredge Victor Horta which was launched on December 15 2010 (see article on page 10 of this issue); the 19000-tonne fall pipe vessel Flintstone; the “Next Generation Plus” mega hopper–the 30000 cubic meter (39240 cubic yard) Congo River; the jack-up vessel Neptune; the 11650 cubic-meter-capacity (15238 cubic yard) hopper dredge Breughel; and the heavy-duty seagoing rock cutter dredge Ambiorix which will have a total installed power of 28000 kW.

MEDCO was established in Qatar in June 2004 and focuses on capital dredging port development and land reclamation. The company has completed the Pearl Qatar project in Qatar the New Doha Airport Reclamation and Rock Revetment Project in Qatar the Al Raha Beach project for Aldar Properties in Abu Dhabi; dredging works for the Ruwais Sulphur Terminal extension in Abu Dhabi; the Aldar Yas Island Tunnel trenching and channel deepening in Abu Dhabi; the new Khalifa port dredging the Ras Ghanada/Al Sadr to Taweelah channels in Abu Dhabi and is presently carrying out the reclamation of the 45 million cubic meter platform for the new refinery of Takreer in Ruwais Abu Dhabi.