Damen Karamara Starts Work in Nigeria

The cutter suction dredge Karamara arrived in Nigeria in October 2013 to begin clearing a stretch of a riverbank in Akwete to improve access to an inland transshipment port.

Barges transport various types of fuel from the open waters some 52 meters away to this bunker site where it is stored for resale. The navigable depth of the river caused problems in the logistics as it is no more than 1.5 meters (five feet).

The dredge was built in Damen’s shipyard in the Netherlands completed in September 2013. The dredge was shipped partly dismantled to Nigeria assembled at the arrival port and then towed to the site. Damen said reassembly was completed in one week and towing to the site took about two weeks. The dredge was fully commissioned and the crew was trained in November 2013.

Karamara is a CSD500 with anchor booms a jib crane navigation lights and BV class approval. The dredge also includes survey instrumentation for monitoring the progress of the job in a dynamic environment.

The surveys are on-going throughout the project as the sand banks in the river move depending on the rainfall and heavier currents. The dredge progress and the natural changes are mapped and the data is also used by river transport ships.