A unique Dh147.2 million ($40 million) vessel-building project was launched at the Dubai Drydocks recently.

Manufacturing took off when a plasma arc seared through the first steel plate to cut it up. The project involves building four 6,200-dwt tankers for Dubai Shipping Company, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc).   
 The 102-metre-long modern petroleum product carriers are twin-propulsion vessels with a bow thruster for added manoeuvrability.
The vessels, on joining the DSC fleet, will be on a 10-year time charter to Dubai and Kuwait (D&K) Holdings, which operates an Enoc Bunkering (Fujairah) joint venture. D&K Holdings, headquartered in Dubai, is equally owned by Enoc and the Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) of Kuwait.
The first vessel will be delivered in early 2006 and the remainder will be delivered in two-month intervals.
 This is the first time the Enoc Group has ordered newbuild vessels from a local shipbuilder and they will be the first large double-hull tankers to be constructed in the UAE.
Gulf Energy Maritime (GEM) is managing the project on behalf of DSC.  Enoc is one of the shareholders in GEM, which has built up experience of 11 new tanker-building contracts to date.
“We may consider two more vessels within the next three years depending on bunker market growth,” an Enoc official said.