BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 18. Dredging operations to ease the reception of vessels with drafts greater than four meters will begin in one of Baku's ports in early 2024, Deputy Director at AMEC Sitara Safarova told Trend.
A specialized vessel of Azerbaijan Maritime Engineering and Construction LLC (AMEC) will carry out these works.
"We received an order to perform dredging operations in one of the Azerbaijani ports with the help of our specialized vessel. Such works were planned to start at the end of 2023, but due to unfavorable weather conditions, the vessel has not yet been delivered to Baku. The operations will start already in 2024," she said.
The specialized dredging vessel is known professionally as a "dredger" and is equipped with a powerful bucket for the extraction of soil.
CEO of AMEC Rashad Shakarov clarified that dredging is a long process and the timing will depend on the state of the sea bottom in the water area.
"It is increasingly difficult to dredge in the Caspian Sea ports, as the bottom surface used to be sand and light clay, but now it is hard clay and rocks due to the shoaling of the Caspian Sea," Shakarov explained.
Specifics of AMEC's work include negotiations with shipowners around the world, delivery of vessels for customers in Azerbaijan, operation and engineering of marine vessels for various purposes, and their inspection and audit.
AMEC's clients include JOCAP Operating Company (TotalEnergies' Absheron gas field), BOS Shelf, and Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ASCO).
ASCO also has one multi-dredger vessel on its inventory called Muhandis Balarza Mammadov, which was built back in 1983 but has since undergone modernization.
This vessel was used by Lukoil (a Russian multinational energy corporation) in 2018 for work at the Filanovsky field in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea (shallowing in the Russian and Kazakh sectors of the Caspian Sea tends to be intense).
In recent years, the Caspian littoral states have been sounding the alarm because of the rapid shoaling of the Caspian Sea (over 20-25 cm per year), which is making it increasingly difficult to carry out full-fledged economic activities against the backdrop of the desire to develop the Middle Corridor and the North-South route.
This problem has led to the fact that almost all Caspian ports can only accept vessels with a draft of 3.5-4 meters, while the norm is more than 6-8 meters, due to which vessels are loaded only by 70-75 percent, which negatively affects the efficiency of cargo transportation through the Caspian Sea.
In this regard, a decision was made in 2023 between Baku Shipyard LLC and Dutch company Damen Shipyards Gorinchem B.V. to build a dredging vessel of CSD 650 type (the contract was signed on October 12).
The vessel of this type will be built for the first time in Azerbaijan and will allow the elimination of obstacles arising in ports as a result of the Caspian Sea level decrease.
Works on its construction have already started, and the dredger is expected to be put into operation by the end of 2025.