
WJ have been an established part of the dewatering game in the
Middle East for over 15 years now since providing the dewatering for the
Dubai International Airport Terminal 3 development back in 2003, with offices in
Dubai since 2005 and our
Qatar office due to celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2019. January this year marked our expansion in to nearby
Kuwait when we were appointed by the Main Contractor HDEC (Hyundai Engineering and Construction) working under the Client
KIPIC (Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company) for the
Al Zour Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Terminal Project. The new terminal is located in the
Al-Zour region of
Kuwait near to the border with
Saudi Arabia, approximately 90km south of the capital
Kuwait City, and will include eight
LNG storage tanks, each with a capacity of
225,000m3, and associated
marine facilities.

Although the
sandy ground conditions were prime
dewatering territory, the project had the potential to be particularly
challenging. Not only would WJ be working in a new country which always brings with it a steep learning curve, but the structures to be dewatered were far from insubstantial – the
intake and
outfall structures which our systems were going to target were approximately 500m by 200m in size, and up to 15m deep, and the works would be taking place on land reclaimed from the
Arabian Gulf. Fortunately there are few things WJ love more than a challenge!

In order to complete the works in a swift and prompt fashion WJ utilised one of our
trusted partners, Trevi, to work alongside our own
SM14 drilling rig. In total 62
dewatering wells and 10
groundwater monitoring standpipes were installed for the
intake structure, and another 21 for the
outfall structure. The initial plans were to install both perimeter and internal dewatering systems to draw the groundwater level down to enable a dry excavation, however the perimeter system proved to be so successful that there was no need for the internal system to be installed. Although the works began at the start of 2018 when the temperatures in Kuwait are relatively comfortable, as the project has progressed the day time working temperatures approached the 40⁰C’s and as the
Muslim holy month of
Ramadan arrived it became necessary for some of the installation works to be undertaken during the night, with only monitoring to be undertaken during daylight hours. This however had no impact upon the expert level of service WJ are known for. Hopefully this is the start of long and successful times for WJ in Kuwait and helps to strengthen our position as one of the go-to contractors for any technically challenging dewatering project across the Middle East.
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