Saudi Arabia’s only notable ship repair and shipbuilding company has diversified into repairing offshore drilling rigs.

Zamil Offshore Services Company (Zosco) announced it completed repairs in February of this year to Ensco Arabia Co’s drilling rig Ensco 96, the first time it accomplished such a job.
Ensco 96 is a Hitachi 250-C designed self-elevating offshore jack-up drilling rig with a gross registered tonnage of about 6,000 tonnes.
“Dammam Port tugs succeeded for the first time in towing the rig from its anchorage location at Ras Tanura into Dammam Port and berthed it at the Zamil Shipyard facility. Upon completion of inspection and repair, it was towed back to its anchorage location in Ras Tanura,” said Hassan A Abouraya, Zosco’s corporate business development and marketing manger.
“Zamil Shipyard’s highly qualified and well-experienced engineers and technicians completed the inspection and repair work on schedule and to the owner’s satisfaction. At the end they got their work approved by the International classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABC),” Abouraya said.
The project included underwater survey by experienced licensed divers, repairs to the rig without dry-docking (the tops of all three spud cans and legs had suffered storm damage), fabrication and installation of a new ST-80 foundation and modifications to the preloading tank.

The shipyard
Zamil Shipyard, operated by Zosco, has nearly 30 years’ experience in ship repair. As well as ship repair, Zosco is also engaged in the newbuilding and conversions sector. Other activities it is involved with include owning, operating and maintaining an offshore supply fleet in the area. Most of its fleet is on long-term charter hire to Saudi Aramco and a few companies in Qatar and the UAE.  Zosco also handles navigation and pilotage services at King Abdul Aziz Port in Dammam.
Zamil Shipyard has a shiplift that can handle all kinds of vessels up to 1,500 tonnes, 65 m length and 15 m breadth. There are nine dry berths and a waterfront quay of  500 m. The yard’s facilities are spread over an area of 121,400 sq m and equipment includes a 200-tonnne floating crane and a fleet of mobile cranes. The shop facilities include steel fabrication and assembly, a machine shop equipped with lathes, boring and gear cutting machines as well as planning and drilling machines; a pipe workshop, an electrical workshop and a painting and insulation sop.
Major clients for shipbuilding and repairs are Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Seaports Authority, the Mohammed Al Mojil Group, the Hadi Al Hammam Establishment, Kanoo Shipping and DJN Dredging.
The client list also includes HAM Dredging, Atco Marine, Haji Al Reza, Lamnalco, Zamil Marine Services and Saudi Fisheries.
“Recent shipbuilding deliveries include nine diesel electric AHTSS for charter by Saudi Aramco, one diving support vessel and one pilot boat for the Saudi Sea  Ports Authority,” said Abouraya.
He disclosed that the current order book included eight vessels flying the Bahrain flag and having bollard of 65 to 75 tonnes. Seven of these are classified as AHTSS UT design while the other is a diesel/electric diving support vessel.
All Zamil fleet vessels are classed by ABS.

Newbuildings
Zamil Shipyard entered the shipbuilding business in 2002 and has since then built several vessels. First to be built were two utility work boats each having an overall length of 49 m for ultimate charter to Saudi Aramco. The gross tonnage of each was 701.
Other boats it built were three harbour tugs for the Dammam Port Authority, two of which had a gross tonnage of 394 and length 32 m while the fourth had gross tonnage of 354 and length 29 m.
The current order book includes 11 vessels comprising seven UT-733-2 Rolls Royce AHTS vessels for Zamil Marine Operations, one buoy-handling vessel and three harbour tugs for the Saudi Seaports Authority.

Ship conversions
The shipyard has carried several conversions. Among the significant ones were the conversion of  four vessels from anchor handling tugs, supply and safety vessels to  WMH (work, maintenance and hook-up) vessels. Two of the ships had been built in Germany and the others in Singapore and Japan.
All the vessels were around 60 to 61 m and had gross tonnage ranging from 944 to 1,287.