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The name Kuwait appeared around the middle of XIIth
Century during the Hegira. It is an abbreviation which
means "the invincible citadel" but it was also known
under another name "Al-Qurain" which appears in shipping
registers and was used by Portuguese, Dutch, and English
travelers. Al-Qurain is an abbreviation for "the hill"
or "elevated land".
Oil was discovered in Kuwait in 1937 by the Oil Company
of Kuwait in the Burgan field and was exported for the
first time in 1946.
Kuwait has earned a fine international reputation in the
areas of art, trade, and for its strategic location
which creates a natural link between the desert and the
ocean.
Kuwait occupies an area of 17,820 square kilometers, and
has nearly 500 kilometers of coastline along the Arabian
Gulf. Most of the country is flat desert plain, broken
by coastal dunes, marshes, and salt depressions around
Kuwait Bay, and an oasis in Jahra. Coarse grass grows in
the desert most of the time. The country has nine
offshore islands. Kuwait is essentially a city-state.
There are smaller communities inland and to the south,
but the vast majority of people live in Kuwait City on
the Bay.
Kuwait's road system is well developed, with modern
multi-lane expressways linking all areas of the country.
There are no railways in the country. |
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Kuwait has two Dry Cargo Ports and three Oil Terminals. |
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Dry Cargo Ports: |
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Oil Terminals: |
- Mina Al Ahmadi
- Mina Al Shuaiba
- Mina Al Abdullah
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Shuwaikh port lies on the south shore of Kuwait Bay.
Shuwaikh port is considered the main commercial port in
the country. It is one of the busiest ports in the
Middle East, with twenty-one deepwater berths. It
handles the bulk of merchant shipping trade and all
types of vessels including liner, tramp, container,
Ro-Ro, barges, fishing trawlers and small passenger
ships. It has a total area of 3.2 million square meters
and 1.2 million square meter water basin area.
The port has 21 berths of which 14 berths with 10 meters
depth, 4 berths with 8.5 meters depth and three berths
with 6.7 meters depth. Total length of all berths is
4055 meters
The vessels traffic to and from the port pass through a
navigation channel dredged inside Kuwait bay. The length
of the channel is about 4.3 miles (8 km and its depth is
8.5 meters at a minimum water tide level. The port can
receive vessels of 7.5 meters draft at any tide
condition and vessels of 9.6 meters draft at high tide.
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Shuaiba port opened to serve the Shuaiba industrial
area, the largest designated areas include petrochemical
oil refining, gas liquefaction, cement manufacture and
fish processing. Shuaiba is the second major port of
Kuwait for handling commercial traffic. Priority is
given to vessels for loading exports of the companies of
the Shuaiba Industrial Area and for vessels having
imports of raw materials, equipment and machinery for
Shuaiba industrial area.
Shuaiba Port is located 45 kms south of Kuwait city. The
port is bounded by the southern pier of Ahmadi port from
the north side and by Mina Abdullah from the south side.
There are 20 commercial & container berths at Shuaiba
port of 4,068 meters total length. Depths of these
berths range from 10 to 14 meters. Four of these berths
are used for container vessels. The oil pier has a water
depth of 16 meters.
There are two small Craft & Barge basins at the port.
The small Craft Basin has a depth of (4) meters and
contain three piers of 100,200,175 meters length. The
Barge Basin has a depth of (6) meters and contains four
piers of 211, 157, 287, 250 meters length.
The port offers facilities for general cargo,
containers, Ro/Ro, tankers and barges. The port
comprises 3 main areas, namely dry cargo berths, small
craft harbor, barge harbor and Chemical tanker berth.
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