Shuaiba, Kuwait
Camp Spearhead
Shuaiba, located in Kuwait's refining and manufacturing complex, receives some of the country's industrial imports and is the export point for petrochemicals, sulfur, and petroleum coke. Ash Shuaybah was built in 1967, fifty kilometers south of the city of Kuwait, to develop the Ash Shuaybah Industrial Zone. By 1988, however, it rivaled Ash Shuwaykh in size and traffic with twenty berths and 3.5 million tons of cargo transported. The pier at Mina Shuaiba has four berths and could receive tankers up to 100,000 tons. Shuaiba Port is a commercial port with 18 dry cargo berths and 3 gantry cranes. Permissible draught 13 meters. Bulk cargoes loaded at Shuaiba port are Urea, Petcoke, and Sulphur. At birth no. 13, Mono Ethylene glycol and Di-Ethylene glycol are loaded. Shuaiba is a major petrochemical development centre. It has been the focus of more than one project by Union Carbide (now owned wholly by Dow Chemicals) and Petrochemical Industries Corporation (PIC) over a period of years, as well as activity by other companies. Prior to the establishment of Camp Spearhead, the location was known as the Living Support Area (LSA).

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Camp Spearhead, named for motto of the 143rd Transportation Command, was located at Al Shuayba Port in Kuwait. Is is approximately half an hour to the north of Camp Patriot and the Kuwait Navy Base.

In April 2003 hundred soldiers from Fort Carson's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment arrived at the port to begin unloading their tanks, Humvees and helicopters. The regiment emptied three cargo ships of hundreds of combat and support vehicles and took them back to Camp Victory in central Kuwait, where thousands of regiment soldiers were living and hundreds more were arriving daily. They unloaded more than 1,000 vehicles from one cargo ship in less than two days. They took the equipment to Camp Victory in central Kuwait, where the 5,200-soldier regiment was preparing for war.

Camp Spearhead was inhabited mostly by the Army & Brits. Their tents had AC, they had unlimited water for drinking & showering, a gym, a rec room with nightly movies & board games, rocks everywhere to control the dust, light to see at night, and you could even wash your hands before eating. This new camp is surrounded by oil refineries burning the impurities with a large flame coming out of several 100 foot high pipes. Huge tanks store the refined oil & gasoline. This camp's intention is to comfort the forces, while Marine camp's intention is to stress troops. As one Marine said, "this place stunts the killing spirit."

In early March, 1991, the 122d Support Battalion (Main) proceeded to "Camp Spearhead" located in Kuwait. The 122d(-) provided Direct Support Operations at "Camp Spearhead" and supported the Safwan, Iraq Refugee Center until May 9, 1991, when the 122d(-) moved to Redeployment Assembly Area (RAA) Rose, Saudi Arabia.

Shuaiba Port is located 45 kilometers to the south of Kuwait city. The geographical location of the port is at Latitude 29? 2' , 26" North and Longitude 48? 10', 56" East. The port is bounded by the Southern Pier of Mina Ahmadi from the North and by Mina Abdullah from the South.

The port of Shuaiba consists of Commercial berths, Container berths and an Oil pier operated by Kuwait National Petroleum Company.

There are 20 berths of a total of 4068 meters in length. Depth of these berths range from 10 to 14 meters, berth Nos. 15, 16, 17 and 18 are used for container vessels. The Oil pier has a 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 contains three piers of 100, 175 & 200 meters in length. The barge basin has a depth of 6 meters and contains four piers of 157, 211, 250 & 287 meters in length.

The port is equipped with moving conveyors to load Urea exported by Petrochemical Industries Company on berth Nos. 1 & 2. There is another conveyor at berth No. 6 for loading Sulphur exported by Kuwait National Petroleum Company and yet another conveyor at berth No. 14 for loading Petroleum Coke.

Shuaiba container terminal is considered to be a modern and developed terminal with a total area of about 31 hecters. Along the east side of the terminal extend four container berths ( 15, 16, 17 & 18 ) used to handle containers and ro-ro vessels with a total length of 880 meters and a depth of 14 meters which can accomodate vessels of 13 meters draft at mean high water spring tide. The terminal also has two CFS warehouses with a total area of 14,500 square meters. And has 80 electrical points for reefer containers. Customs inspection area with a capacity to handle 16 containers at one time is also situated within the port premises.

Shuaiba Container Terminal was first commissioned in May 1982, with berth Nos. 17 & 18 and two container gantry cranes with a lifting capacity of 40 tons. In August 1983, berth Nos. 17 & 18 were put into service with additional two gantries of the same capacity, of the four gantries one was damaged during the Iraqi invasion, the terminal at present has three gantries. The terminal is also equipped with modern sophisticated container handling equipment.