Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement for Ships at Hamad Port and Doha

Inspection services for ships at Doha

Each service has its own page with the method, the class requirements and what the report contains.

Where thickness gauging happens around Doha

Thickness gauging at Hamad Port is done alongside during a ship's call or while it waits at the port's anchorage, usually as a limited scope, such as piping, deck plating, hatch coamings or a sample of ballast tanks, fitted around cargo work. Full renewal-survey programmes need a dry dock, and Qatar's large-ship docking is done at the Erhama Bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard at Ras Laffan in the north, so many Doha-managed ships combine pre-docking readings at Hamad Port with the full programme at the yard.

Hull gauging at Mesaieed covers bulk carriers, product and chemical tankers and the industrial port's tugs and service craft, either alongside when the terminal allows or at anchorage. Offshore vessel gauging in Qatar happens at the supply bases and repair berths serving the offshore fields, where supply boats, crew boats and anchor handlers come in for maintenance between charters. Because Hamad Port, Mesaieed and the offshore bases are all within driving distance of Doha, a team in the country for one ship can usually take on a second without a new mobilisation, provided the port passes are in place.

• Hamad Port container and general cargo berths — piping, deck and hold gauging on boxships, car carriers and multipurpose tonnage during their calls
• Hamad Port anchorage — pre-purchase and on-hire condition checks on vessels queued for a berth, reached by launch booked through the agent
• Mesaieed Port — holds, tank tops and ballast tanks of bulk carriers loading fertiliser and steel, plus condition gauging on product and chemical tankers
• Doha Port — sea water and fire main lines, plus exhaust gas cleaning wash-water piping where fitted, on cruise ships turning round in the winter season
• Offshore supply bases and repair berths — renewal-survey gauging on supply vessels, crew boats and anchor handlers serving Qatar's offshore fields
• Erhama Bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard, Ras Laffan — full renewal-survey programmes for Doha-managed ships when they dock in Qatar

Regulation and market context for ship inspection in Qatar

Port state control in Qatar operates under the Riyadh MoU, so ships calling at Hamad Port, Mesaieed and Ras Laffan are subject to port state control inspections under that regime. The Gulf has no emission control area, which leaves the 0.50% global cap as the applicable sulphur limit; Qatar's ports see both ships running on compliant fuel and scrubber-fitted container ships and bulk carriers. On the latter, wash-water and overboard piping is a corrosion hotspot that can be checked during a normal port call, without waiting for the next docking.

The market is dominated by energy. QatarEnergy's expansion of LNG output from the North Field has driven one of the largest LNG carrier newbuilding programmes ever placed, and the growth of the gas business brings more offshore and support vessels into service around the country. Bulk carriers in Mesaieed's fertiliser trade need particular attention: urea and other fertilisers that pick up moisture attack hold coatings and steel, causing pitting and grooving at frame brackets, hopper plating and tank tops. Summer heat is severe, and Qatar's rules restrict outdoor work during the hottest hours of the summer months, so gauging plans have to build in those limits from the start rather than absorb them as delays.

Wherever a ship is outside a sulphur emission control area, the global 0.50% sulphur cap applies, and many of the ships calling at Doha meet it with an exhaust gas cleaning system rather than compliant fuel. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it corrode quickly in service, especially on open-loop systems, and are worth adding to the gauging scope.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Doha

Most of the work on a Doha job happens before the team boards: scope, plan and access are settled first, so the time on board goes on measurement.

The team flies into Hamad International Airport (DOH), with non-stop services from many Indian cities; the onward journey to Hamad Port, Mesaieed or the offshore bases is by road. Port entry needs ISPS passes and, for some industrial areas, additional security permits, all arranged through the ship's agent; anchorage boarding is by launch booked the same way. Qatar's entry requirements for the team are completed before departure, so we need the ship's ETA or docking date early and confirm the mobilisation once permits are in hand.

• Send the vessel name or IMO number, ship type, class society, the survey due (annual, intermediate, renewal survey number, CAP or owner's condition survey), the port and dates, and the scope you expect.
• We confirm the scope against the class rules for that survey, prepare the thickness measurement plan with frame and section references, and say whether the measurement will be credited to a class survey.
• Mobilisation is planned around visa lead times and the vessel's schedule; the ship's agent arranges port access, and the yard or ship arranges staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates.
• Gauging with calibrated ultrasonic thickness gauges: through sound coatings only where the gauge's through-coating mode has been verified on a coated reference, otherwise on cleaned bare steel, with every reading tied to its frame, strake and location on the sketch.
• Readings are compared with original thicknesses as work proceeds; substantial and excessive corrosion and any cracks are reported to the attending surveyor and the superintendent the same day.
• The final report is issued on the class thickness-measurement formats with sketches, a summary of locations exceeding the allowable margins, piping tables where piping was in scope, and the gauge calibration and technician certificates.

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