Logistics Support Station
Umm Said / Umm Saeed / Musay'id, Qatar
24?59'46"N 51?32'56"E
In 2000, fuel storage requirements were developed with U.S. Central Command for a 750,000-barrel petroleum storage facility at this location. A service contract was awarded to provide this new facility starting January 2002. There will be 650,000 barrels of JP-8 storage and 100,000 barrels of JP-5 storage. This contract is for 5 years with three 5-year options to renew.

Umm Sa'id [also called Musay'id] was established in 1949 as a tanker terminal by the Qatar Petroleum Company on an inhospitable, previously uninhabited site, along the sabkhah (salt flat) terrain characteristic of the coast. Umm Sa'id, the only deepwater port in Qatar for more than 20 years, handled not only the export of oil but the import of basic construction and industrial equipment, as well as consumer goods. These imports, financed by petroleum revenues, were used in the conversion of the country from the economic level of subsistence to that of a modern industrial and commercial state. The opening of the deepwater port at the capital city of Doha in the early 1970s lessened dependence on Umm Sa'id as a general port. Modern industrial development there includes a plant producing ammonia and nitrogen fertilizers and a fully automated flour mill.

The capital, Doha, is located on the central east coast on a sweeping (if shallow) harbor. Other ports include Umm Said, Al Khawr, and Al Wakrah. Only Doha and Umm Said are capable of handling commercial shipping, although a large port and a terminal for loading natural gas are planned at Ras Laffan, north of Al Khawr. Coral reefs and shallow coastal waters make navigation difficult in areas where channels have not been dredged.

Qatar's National Oil Distribution Company (Nodco) is upgrading its refinery at Umm Said. The upgrade will increase capacity from 57,500 bbl/d to 83,000 bbl/d. A 30,000 bbl/d condensate refining unit also is being built on the same site. The projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2001.