Qatar Gas Transport Company Ltd (Nakilat), will double its labour force to 10,000 by 2016,Managing Director Mohammed Ghannam said yesterday. Ghannam said increasing the workforce is necessary to respond to the needs of the company’s clients. He said that the Arhama bin Jaber shipyard was operating at 40 percent of its capacity. He said he is expecting the shipyard to be a strong driver of the company’s profits in the next four to five years. He said that the shipyard cost more than $3bn which was paid by the government. He said Nakilat and its partners were managing the shipyard. Arhama bin Jaber could provide maintenance to 150 ships a year. It could build 25 ships a year as well. He added that Nakilat will expand into building fibreglass boats by 2015. Last year the fourth and fifth stage of the shipyard were completed; signalling the first steps into building luxury boats. The fifth stage was concerned with repairing small ships. The new shipyard was originally set to provide maintenance to Nakilat’s fleet, but the company felt that it would be more in tune with Qatar National Vision 2030 to expand the shipyard’s tasks. He said that Nakilat has managed to provide maintenance to more than a 100 ships, 50 of which were LNG vessels. He said the company was benefiting from the experience of its partners; Dutch Damen,which over 45 shipyards across the globe that provide similar services.Nakilat’s profit in 2012 was QR746.5m. It was established in 2004 and owns 54 LNG vessels, making it the largest LNG ship owner in the world. Source : Qatar Chronicle

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