GE Oil & Gas New Facility in Jebel Ali Free Zone
GE Oil & Gas today celebrated the ground-breaking of a new facility that will further expand its presence in the UAE in Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza). Scheduled to open in 2015, the new facility spreads over an area of 22,700 sqm and can accommodate over 300 employees. A milestone in the expansion of GE Oil & Gas in the country and the region, the new facility will offer services by GE Oil & Gas’ various business units, thus strengthening customer service standards. Housed in a customized state-of-the-art facility developed by Jafza, the new GE Oil & Gas Manufacturing & Technology Center will offer tailored training programs, and also feature a dedicated repair center that will help improve the speed of service delivered by being closer to the customers.
Gulf Ships to Join Global Green Drive
Bahraini and foreign ships operating in Gulf waters will soon have to meet international pollution standards that aim to protect marine life and the natural resources of the region. An international convention that comes into effect on August 1 next year will help to ensure that ships do not discharge oil, plastic and rubbish in to the sea, said Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Center director Captain Abdul Monem Mohammad Al Janahi. He said there was an average of 4,000 boats operating within regional waters everyday and many discharge waste oil and rubbish into the sea. Capt Al Janahi said the Gulf region was particularly vulnerable to the effects of pollution because of its shallow and slow moving water takes three to five years to circulate.
Iraqi Oil Smuggling Attempt Goes Sour in the Persian Gulf
An Iranian team on Monday stopped an oil leak from a ship that sank in the Gulf last week while apparently smuggling Iraqi fuel oil, a regional marine body said. The Bahrain-based Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Centre (MEMAC) said the holes through which oil was leaking from the Honduras-flagged Georgios had been closed, limiting the environmental risk, and a Kuwaiti team had helped control the oil slick by using dispersants. "We can say now that the danger is over," MEMAC's director, Captain Abdul Munem al-Janahi said, estimating that half of the 1,900 tons of oil the ship was carrying may have leaked out. "The Iranian team is using under-water cameras to take shots of the ship's position to help study the best way to salvage it," he said.
