Ship Thickness Measurement and Hull Inspection in the Middle East and Egypt

Gulf ship-repair yards, anchorages and lay-up

Drydocks World in Dubai and ASRY in Bahrain are long-established repair yards whose docks see offshore units, bulk carriers, gas carriers and tankers, and further yards and drydocks operate elsewhere in the UAE and in Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Ships trading to the Gulf, the Indian subcontinent and East Africa dock in the region because it lies on their route.

Afloat, the anchorages off the main Gulf ports and on the Gulf of Oman coast hold ships waiting for berths, cargo, orders or crew changes, and offshore support vessels and older tonnage lie up in the region between contracts. Laid-up and waiting ships are good gauging candidates: tanks can be cleaned and ventilated without a cargo programme to work around, and the gauging can be finished before the ship is reactivated, sold or sent to the yard.

Anchorage access is by launch from the port, booked through the ship's agent. The shamal, the strong north-westerly wind over the Gulf, can stop launch transfers for a day or more, so anchorage work carries weather contingency.

The Suez Canal, the Red Sea and Egypt's ports

Ships transiting the Suez Canal wait at the anchorages off Port Said and Suez for their convoy, and Egypt's canal and Mediterranean ports, Port Said, Alexandria and Suez, offer repair and lay-by capacity for ships on the route. A transit wait is rarely long enough for planned gauging, but a ship calling at an Egyptian port for cargo, repair or crew can be gauged there, and the canal-zone yards take repair work from ships on the Europe to Asia route.

Routing through the Red Sea has been disrupted by regional security since late 2023, and many operators have at times sent ships round the Cape of Good Hope instead. A ship's port rotation can therefore change at short notice, and a job planned for a Red Sea or Suez call may need to move. We plan Red Sea and Egyptian jobs against a confirmed call rather than a voyage plan, and keep the team and visa ready to shift.

On the Red Sea itself, Jeddah serves Saudi Arabia's western coast and Aqaba is Jordan's only seaport; both handle bulk carriers, container ships and tankers, which we can gauge alongside or at anchor.

Heat, humidity and warm seawater: why ships corrode faster here

Seawater corrosion speeds up with temperature, and the Gulf's water is both warm and more saline than the open ocean. Ballast tanks filled and emptied in it, under decks the sun heats through the day, lose their coatings first at the top of the tank: under the deck and on the upper side shell and longitudinal bulkheads, where heat, oxygen and wet-dry cycling combine. Once the coating has gone, wastage and pitting follow quickly.

Cargo tanks on crude oil tankers suffer the same heat under the deck, and the deckhead structure corrodes where condensation forms in the inert gas atmosphere. Bottom plating in crude tanks pits under the water and sludge that settle out of the cargo. Sea water cooling, ballast and fire main piping carries warm, aggressive water continuously, and bulk carrier holds sweat in humid air when cargo and closed hatch covers trap it.

Heat also changes how gauging is done. On a sun-exposed deck the steel can be hotter than standard probes and couplant are made for, and sound velocity in steel shifts with temperature, so deck gauging is scheduled for the cooler hours and the gauge is checked on a reference block at the working temperature.

Scheduling around Ramadan and summer heat for enclosed-space work

Ramadan follows the Islamic lunar calendar, so it moves about eleven days earlier each year and can fall in any season. Working hours are shortened across the Gulf during Ramadan, and yards, agents and port offices keep reduced hours, so permits, passes and launch bookings take longer to arrange. Work continues, but the shift pattern changes; we agree it with the yard in advance and keep critical gauging clear of the Eid al-Fitr holidays that follow.

In summer the GCC states enforce a midday break for outdoor work, and the air in a tank under a sun-heated deck can be far hotter than on the quay. Enclosed-space entry in that heat needs more than a gas-free certificate: forced ventilation, shorter spells inside, water and rest, and a rescue plan that works in a hot, confined tank. We put deck and external work into the early morning, take tank gauging in the cooler hours or in the tanks ventilated longest, and build the extra time into the plan. The cooler months from late autumn to early spring are the easiest for heavy tank gauging, which is worth weighing if the docking date is flexible.

Ports we cover in Middle East & Egypt

Each port has its own page describing the traffic, the yards and anchorages where gauging happens, and the jobs we see there. The full list of port pages follows at the end of this page.

Frequently asked questions

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