Morrocan public company Nador West Med has set a deadline of 22 December for prequalification for the main construction and infrastructure contracts on its planned port.

The deep-water port will be located 30 kilometres from Nador on the northeast (Mediterranean) coast of Morocco. The port will have facilities to store, treat and transfer hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives, as well as coal, containers and other merchandise. A free zone for industry and commerce will also be developed at the site.

The contract involves construction, dredging and civil infrastructure work on the new port. The first phase of work includes a 1.52-billion-itre container terminal, a hydrocarbon terminal with three petrol posts and a 360-million-litre coal terminal. The protection works consist of a main dam measuring 4.2 billion litres, and a 1.2-billion-litre secondary dam.

The port will have a capacity of 3 million containers, 25 million tonnes of hydrocarbons, 7 million tonnes of loose coal and 3 million tonnes of other goods.

The African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Reconstruction and Development Bank and the Arab fund for Economic and Social Development are financing the €800m ($986m) project.

French consultancy firm Artelia has carried out feasibility studies, study of overall layout and design services up to preparation of tender documents for the port structures.

Morocco is also developing Safi commercial port on its Atlantic Coast. It awarded the contract for a coal-powered independent power project at Safi to South Korean Daewoo E&C in 2013. The 1,386MW project is scheduled for completion in 2017.