Gwadar News

On Wednesday, Pakistani forces stopped an attack by militants with gunfire and bombs near the port of Gwadar, killing eight attackers and two soldiers.China has invested in the province of Balochistan, focusing on Gwadar and its resources.The militants used guns and bombs to attack a complex near the port, which holds government offices and forces, as per Saeed Ahmed Umrani, a government official.After setting off bombs, the militants fought and tried to enter the complex, according…

Pakistani security forces on Wednesday repulsed a gun and bomb attack by militants on a complex outside the strategic port of Gwadar, which killed all eight militants and two soldiers, officials said.China has invested heavily in the mineral-rich southwestern province of Balochistan, including developing Gwadar, despite a decades-long separatist insurgency.Armed with guns and bombs, the militants stormed the complex just outside the port that houses offices of government departments…

Unidentified gunmen opened fire at Pakistan's Gwadar port authority complex in its restive Balochistan province, Geo News reported on Wednesday.Two attackers were killed in retaliatory firing by security personnel, the TV channel said, adding that a blast preceded the firing.Gwadar’s deputy commissioner and police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Gwadar is located near the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping route in the Arabian Sea.The deep-water port…

China and Myanmar are moving ahead with a China-backed deep-sea port project in Kyauk Phyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) , 250 miles northwest of Yangon.The framework agreement was signed by Myanmar's Deputy Minister of Planning and Finance and Chairperson of the Management Committee of the Kyaukphyu SEZ U Set Aung and President of CITIC Group Chang Zhenming, stated Chinese state media.This is the third port in India’s vicinity. China is also developing deepwater strategic Gwadar port in Pakistan in the Arabian Sea which faces the Mumbai coast. It has also acquired Sri Lanka's Hambantota port on debt swap in the Indian Ocean. It is also…

A group of leading business houses in Pakistan plan to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal by March 2019 for gas processing and consumption in their own plants, Reuters reported. The proposed, second multi-million dollars terminal being set up at the Port Qasim to handle LNG imports will give tremendous boost to LNG trade. The private terminal will bring the total number of potential LNG import projects in the country to eight. Currently, Pakistan has only one active LNG import terminal at Port Qasim in Karachi but is seen by traders and suppliers as a major growth market key to soaking up a growing glut of the fuel on international markets.

With the aim to dominate maritime industry China has been acquiring overseas ports with huge investments which crossed USD 20 bln last year, Financial Times reported. Beijing has spent billions expanding its ports network to secure sea lanes and establish itself as a maritime power, says the report. China is aggressively pushing its  “One Belt One Road”, a grand scheme to win diplomatic allies and open markets in around 65 countries between Asia and Europe. It is pushing ahead with plans to open new shipping routes through the Arctic circle, the report said. The report quoted a study by Grisons Peak, a London-based investment bank, found that Chinese companies have announced plans to buy or invest in nine overseas ports in the year to June in projects valued at a total of $20.1bn.

Western manufacturers are shying away from supplying equipment for an Iranian port that India is developing for fear the United States may reimpose sanctions on Tehran, Indian officials say, dealing a blow to New Delhi's strategic ambitions in the region. Lying on the Gulf of Oman along the approaches to the Straits of Hormuz, the port of Chabahar is central to India's hopes to crack open a transport corridor to Central Asia and Afghanistan that bypasses arch-rival Pakistan. India committed $500 million to speed development of the port after sanctions on Iran were lifted following a deal struck between major powers and Tehran to curb its nuclear programme in 2015.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a deal to develop the Chabahar port in Iran for which India will extend $500 million. The historic pact makes Chabahar the first foreign port which India is involved in developing to such a large extent. India and Iran, along with Afghanistan, have agreed to develop the southern Iranian port of Chabahar, giving India vital access to Central Asia, as well as highlighting regional rivalries and burgeoning friendships. The main contract on Chahbahar port was supplemented by a contract between the Ex-Im Bank of India and Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation with a capital back-up of $150 million for developing the port.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday pledged up to $500 million to develop the southern Iran port of Chabahar, in a move to give his country trade access to Iran, Afghanistan and central Asia. The route is currently all-but blocked by Pakistan, long at odds politically with India. The deal, which runs in conjunction with the development of road and rail links through Iran to Afghanistan, also represented a strategic victory for India over China, which has been competing to develop the port. Modi signed the development deal on the first visit by an Indian leader to Iran in 15 years. He was joined by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani.

India will on Monday sign a commercial contract with Iran to build and run a strategic port on Iran's southern coast, the Indian government said on Friday, to help it gain a foothold in Iran and win access to central Asia and Afghanistan. Talks to build the Chabahar port have been on for years but since the scaling back of Western sanctions against Iran, India has pushed hard for the project so it doesn't lose out to other such as China, who are keen to invest. The deal under which India will develop two terminals and cargo berths at Chabahar, on the Gulf of Oman, will be signed during a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Iran beginning on Sunday.

The newly expanded Gwadar deep-water port in Pakistan that is key to a planned $46 billion Chinese economic corridor is nearly complete and expects to process about a million tons of cargo next year, the operator said on Tuesday. Most of the cargo will be incoming construction materials to be used in projects related to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which envisions linking far-western Chinese production regions by road through Pakistan for shipment through Gwadar port to overseas markets. Gwadar is in Baluchistan province where separatist groups in have waged a violent campaign for decades, saying the Pakistani state has failed to develop the impoverished region and instead plundered its natural resources.

India has come “under pressure” from Iran to complete the Chabahar Port project, with the lifting of Iranian trade sanctions, reports Hindu Business Line. Acting strategically to China’s repeated attempts to wean away India from Chabahar Port upgradation, India is taking steps to firm up its bilateral negotiations and alliance with Iran. According to highly placed sources, both sides have also arrived at a deadline to complete the talks on LNG terminal. A top official, involved in the talks, has reportedly said that India is under pressure to complete the Chabahar project. It has to be done by the first half of this year. The first phase of the $31-billion Chabahar Port project involves construction and operation of two berths there.

Two Pakistani coast guards were killed on Saturday when a bomb exploded under their vehicle, police officials said, in a town in the southwest which has been hit hard by years of separatist violence. The blast, which also injured three coast guards, completely destroyed the vehicle during a patrol on the outskirts of Jewani town in Baluchistan province, the police officials said. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion. Jewani lies in Gwadar district, whose port is at one end of the proposed $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor stretching from the Arabian sea to China's Xinjiang region. Separatist groups in Baluchistan…

India will push ahead this week with plans to build a port in southeast Iran, two sources said, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi keen to develop trade ties with Central Asia and prepared to fend off U.S. pressure not to rush into any deals with Iran. India and Iran agreed in 2003 to develop a port at Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman, near Iran's border with Pakistan, but the venture has made little progress because of Western sanctions on Iran. Now, spurred on by Chinese President Xi Jinping's signing of energy and infrastructure agreements with Pakistan worth $46 billion, Modi wants to swiftly sign trade deals with Iran and other Gulf countries.

China has been allowed operation rights for 40 years at a port in Gwadar, a planned deep-water harbor in Pakistan. This move will give China access to Gulf countries, and the possibility of building a naval base on the Arabian Sea in future, sources revealed. Chinese Overseas Port Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation under the State Council, has been granted the right to operate Gwadar for 40 years. Infrastructure construction is almost complete and the port could be put into complete usage by the end of the year, Dostain Khan Jamaldini, chairman of the Gwadar Port Authority, said. It could function as a vibrant economic hub connecting China and Pakistan.

Pakistan is close to signing a $4 to $5 billion deal to buy eight submarines from China, the Financial Times said on Thursday, in what it added would likely be China's largest overseas arms sale. The Pakistan Navy says Islamabad has given the green light to the military's plan to purchase eight conventional submarines from China, reports Huanqiu, the Chinese-language website of China's nationalistic tabloid Global Times. Pakistan has been negotiating the submarine purchase with China since 2011, with initial plans to purchase six, and subsequently raising the number to eight. The plan is viewed as a means to address the country’s force imbalance with India.

The latest US Maritime OPINTEL analysis and weekly report that follows covers the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. OMAN: On 6 March, three suspicious white skiffs approached a merchant vessel near position 22:27.1 N – 060:29.2 E, approximately 122 nm southeast of Muscat, Oman. The skiffs with two persons onboard each skiff approached the ship to within a half mile. After self protection measures were initiated by the crew, the skiffs moved away. PAKISTAN: On 28 February…

On January 20, a member of the American Salvage Association (ASA) successfully refloated a bulk carrier that ran aground near Gwadar Port in Pakistan. Led by their Salvage Master, ASA’s member mobilized a salvage team that included a naval architect and dive team, along with a high-horsepower tug, to refloat the grounded vessel carrying 50,000 metric tons of urea fertilizer. The crew safely refloated the 623 ft bulk carrier during high tide without having to lighter bunkers or cargo. The vessel and cargo were delivered to its owners with no damage to the environment.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was informed in late October of this year that the new Gwadar Port would be completed ahead of schedule with the first phase of the port to be opened in the first quarter of 2005. As reported in Pakistan Daily Times, Mr Aziz praised the work done by Chinese engineers in completing the work ahead of schedule and thanked the Chinese government for helping the Pakistani government in the port construction. Central to this success has been the role of the China Harbour Engineering Company. A part of their work was the supply of a pair of 2600 HP azimuthing drive docking tugs for the new port. The keels for these boats were laid at China’s PengLai BoHai Shipbuilding Company on January 8 this year.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was informed in late October of this year that the new Gwadar Port would be completed ahead of schedule with the first phase of the port to be opened in the first quarter of 2005. As reported in Pakistan Daily Times, Mr Aziz praised the work done by Chinese engineers in completing the work ahead of schedule and thanked the Chinese government for helping the Pakistani government in the port construction. Central to this success has been the role of the China Harbour Engineering Company.

The Pakistan government has decided to upgrade the basic infrastructure for construction of commercial cargo ships and warships, including F-22 P frigates, in Karachi, according to a report on www.uniquepakistan.com. The government has allocated funds for the fiscal year 2007-08 and it has already dropped Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works Limited (KSEW) from its proposed privatization list. It is envisaged that if shipbuilding projects for the Pakistan Navy, Karachi Port Trust (KPT)…

Leaders are touting development of Pakistan's first deep-sea port at Gwadar as a potentially potent engine for trade and other economic growth in the region, reported UPI. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz spoke at a ceremony marking the start-up of the nation's first desalination plant financed entirely from private sources. He added the new deep-water port will eventually be linked to Iran, the Pakistan Dawn newspaper reported. Aziz acknowledged that some of his countrymen are concerned that the port expansion project, which is to start next month, will draw people from other countries, changing Gwadar's demographics. Pakistan began technical and financial studies for the Gwadar port in 1993. Source: UPI

T&T Bisso successfully refloated a bulk carrier that ran aground near Gwadar Port in Pakistan. Led by Salvage Master V. Seva, T&T Bisso mobilized a salvage team that included a naval architect and dive team, along with a high-horsepower tug, to refloat the grounded vessel carrying 50,000 metric tons of urea fertilizer. The crew safely refloated the 623.3-ft bulk carrier during high tide without having to lighter bunkers or cargo. The vessel and cargo were delivered to its owners with no damage to the environment. (www.ttbisso.com)