Sharjah's Port Khalid partially closed after fire

Sharjah's Port Khalid, one of the busiest ports in the GCC states, will remain partially closed for two days following yesterday's early morning fire.

Officials told Emirates Business the port was being cleared of chemical and oil spills to avoid health hazards and water contamination, but stressed that operations would resume fully by Wednesday.

The massive fire broke out at a storage facility of Emirates Oil Refining Company (Erco), which mainly produces sunflower oil, located inside the port. However, it wil not lead to any shortage of edible oil in the market, a company source said.

The company's warehouse at the Khalid Port had about 100,000 cartons of edible oil. ERC has been the major supplier of edible oil brands such as Alfa, Amber, Noor, Sunflow, Allegro, Oasis in the UAE and other GCC states.

"There will not be any shortage of edible oils in the local market because we can get enough of edible oil supplies from our Egyptian plant," the source said.

However, firefighters from Sharjah Civil Defence were able to stop the blaze from spreading to adjacent oil storage facilities.

The port remained closed yesterday, as firefighters and emergency teams cleared the area comprising 16 yards that were gutted.

"Operations will be temporarily affected by the fire incident, but we hope everything to get back to normal soon," said an official.

Police are still investigating the cause of the fire and the value of damage, but unofficial estimates put the loss at Dh8bn. In August last year, fire gutted the oil depot of Emirates Lube Oil Company located inside Port Khalid, causing billions of dirhams in losses.

Gulftainer Company is the operator for Port Khalid along with Khorfakkan Container Terminal.

Covering more than 150,000 square metres, Port Khalid's facilities consist of 21 berths with a variety of shipping assets ranging from general, reefer, dry, liquid and bulk cargo to container and crude oil and offshore support services.

The combined throughput for Port Khalid and Khorfakkan Container Terminal grew by eight per cent in 2007 to reach a record 2.1m TEUs (20 foot equivalent units), signifying the growing importance of the two ports in the region.