AQABA, Nov. 9 (Petra) – The Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC) is accelerating a strategic package of port and infrastructure projects designed to expand handling capacity, boost operational efficiency, and scale up energy trade processing across the Red Sea littoral, CEO Hussein Safadi said Monday.

The expansion strategy aligns with directives issued during Prime Minister Jafar Hassan’s recent operational audit in the Aqaba Governorate, which mandated accelerated port infrastructure upgrades to accommodate surging regional trade flows and bolster national supply chain resilience.

Safadi told the Jordan News Agency (Petra) that ADC is prioritizing the construction of a new oil terminal alongside an offshore Single Point Mooring (SPM) buoy system for petroleum export operations, complemented by a substantial footprint expansion in vehicle and container logistics.

An Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) tender has been issued for marine civil works at the new oil terminal, with a specialized operator tender under an Equip-Operate-Transfer (EOT) framework set to follow shortly. Designed to berth vessels up to 160,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT), the facility will feature an annual operational capacity of 5 million tonnes, bringing Aqaba’s total petroleum handling capacity to 11 million tonnes per year upon completion within two years.

Concurrently, the SPM offshore buoy system–funded by the private sector under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model–will process crude oil and heavy fuel oil exports. The facility is scheduled to become fully operational within eight months following contract signing, targeted for mid-2027. Both assets are designed to support domestic refined product needs, facilitate Iraqi crude oil exports via Aqaba, and relieve operational strain on the existing oil berth.

To manage heightened traffic, ADC expanded vehicle staging yards from 6,000 to 17,000 vehicles by allocating 150,000 square meters adjacent to the New Port of Aqaba. It also designated an additional 67,500-square-meter yard for empty units near the Aqaba Container Terminal (ACT), supplemented by off-site capacity at the Aqaba Logistics Village.

Performance metrics through the third quarter of 2026 demonstrate sharp throughput growth across all terminals. The multi-purpose New Port of Aqaba handled 5.85 million tonnes of cargo, marking a 63.6 percent year-on-year surge, while the existing oil terminal processed 3.43 million tonnes of liquid bulk, up 39.3 percent. Transit cargo through the New Port reached 1.8 million tonnes, up from 38,900 tonnes in the corresponding 2025 period, and containerized transit traffic at ACT escalated 151.8 percent to hit 115,762 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs).

To manage car-carrier volumes, ADC temporarily routed Roll-on/Roll-off (RoRo) and heavy-lift vessels to the Aqaba Cruise Terminal, which handled 79,795 vehicles year-to-date. Land transport measures include direct-loading permits for foreign car-transporter trucks and cross-border bottleneck mitigation at the Durra border crossing in coordination with Saudi authorities.

On broader logistics integration, Safadi highlighted strategic synergies with the Aqaba–Shidiya–Ma’an railway freight corridor and the Aqaba–Ma’an dry port project to seamlessly link maritime terminals with inland production centers and regional export markets.

Safadi also revealed ongoing negotiations with the National Real Estate Company (NREC) to add 500 dunams to the Aqaba South Industrial Estate. The 21 million JOD development currently spans over 1.5 million square meters–housing 12 modern warehouses and four pre-fabricated industrial build-outs–and is projected to reach 100 percent occupancy during 2027.

//Petra// AA