Fujairah launches UAE's first supertanker dock

The oil terminal at Fujairah on Wednesday inaugurated a dock for supertankers, the first of its kind in OPEC member the United Arab Emirates.

The facility enables the terminal to receive tankers measuring 334 metres (yards) and weighing 330,000 tonnes, port director Mussa Murad said at the inauguration ceremony.

"This dock is the deepest oil dock in the Middle East," he said.

The jetty is able to process two million tonnes of petroleum products at loading or unloading in 24 hours, he said.

In contrast, for the entirety of 2015 the terminal handled 56 million tonnes of petroleum products.

At the inauguration, Fujairah's ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed al-Sharqi cut a symbolic ribbon before a moored supertanker's sirens were sounded in celebration.

The Arabian Sea port enables the UAE to export most of the oil it ships from an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has threatened to close in case of a major regional conflict.