Company number one, Lanka Hydraulic Institute (LHI), which prepared a study on a project to improve the oil and gas product import / export facilities at the port of Massawa, has been awarded to restruct Srilankan coastal areas, which were hit by the 2004 Tsunami. The company made a proposal to the Stake Holders, advising on how to replace the old jetty (jetty = petroleum pipe line, photo on the left by Brian Samuel Bar) with a newly build jetty at the power plant at Hirgigo Bay - Massawa harbour. In 2008 the Government of Eritrea invited in an international tender, foreign companies

to apply for a contract to build the facilities, financed by (IDA) International Development Association, the European Union and the Government of Eritrea. The bidding, which had to be laid out according to World Bank’s eligibility rules and procedures, required proposals from the applying companies. LHI informs about how it would approach the Massawa project as well as other news on their Home Page.

The feasibility study, design as well as the management of the tender for the petroleum jetty has been executed by company number 2, the Maritim Consultancy Royal Haskoning (RH). The award and the contracts of the tender were supposed to be finished at the end of 2008 and construction was supposed to start by early 2009 according to RH.

Ethiopia is concerned that the trade volumes of it’s increasing import and exports rely to much on the port of Djibouti. Officials state that 90% of goods out and into Ethiopia flow through the port of Djibouti, which could create a bottleneck in the future. Since Eritrea gained it’s independence, all ports on the Red Sea, such as Massawa and Assab belong to Eritrea. Ethiopia is using the port of Djibouti, which lies 910 kms away from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Local business men regard the port of Djibouti as expensive and not efficient. Read more: SudanTribune.