Qatar Petroleum (QP)has started technical clarifications with bidders for the dredging, reclamation and breakwater package on the Ras Laffan port expansion project in advance of commercial bids being submitted on 18 September. The project, valued at more than $1,000 million, is being undertaken to take account of the rapid rise in gas exports from the northern port, which is the home of the local liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry (MEED 26:8:05).

Four groups submitted technical bids on 21 August. They were:

Dredging International, Belgium, with Qatar Dredging Company, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, the US, Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company, South Korea, and Athena, Greece;

Jan de Nul Dredging, Belgium, with Royal Boskalis Westminster, the Netherlands;

Marubeni Corporation, Japan, with Toa Corporation, also of Japan;

Van Oord Gulf FZE, the Netherlands, with Penta Ocean, Japan, Interbeton, the Netherlands, and Six Construct, Belgium.

The tender called for the reclamation of about 42 million cubic metres (mcm), the dredging of 18 mcm and the construction of about 18 kilometres of breakwater.

The Ras Laffan project is one of two major dredging and reclamation contracts out to bid in Doha. Bids are now due on 21 September for the Lusail mixed-use development. The contract centres on the excavation and dredging of 24 mcm of land, to create a new shoreline, three access channels, inter-tidal flats and an artificial lagoon; offshore dredging of about 2.5 mcm; and the filling and reclamation of coastal land and manmade islands with a total volume of about 16 mcm.