Middle East Navigation Aids Service

Middle East Navigation Aids Service (MENAS) is the registered trading name in the Middle East Gulf and is a wholly owned branch office of IFAN.

Aids to Navigation - MENAS owns and maintains an extensive network of navigation beacons, buoys and lighthouses across the Gulf and its approaches. It also provides maintenance services and quality management practices for AtoNs considered essential for international shipping and owned by governmental and port authorities throughout the Gulf. MENAS issues regular Notices to Mariners, which provide essential, up to date information and advice to mariners navigating within the Middle East Gulf.

MENAS is a unique organization with intimate knowledge of the region’s port approaches, channels and navigational hazards. It is the only independent Aids to Navigation authority in the world, with no country affiliation or national sponsor. Over 2,000 vessels rely upon MENAS equipment and services each month.

DGPS and AIS - MENAS operates a free-to-air differential global positioning system (DGPS) for the region. The Company has deployed Automatic Identification System (AIS) equipment across its equipment network to both enhance the service to mariners and improve performance monitoring of AtoNs: The MENAS Operations Centre in Bahrain records status, performance and reliability of AtoNs using the AIS system and satellite-based Vega Web monitoring.

Navtex - MENAS is the Acting Sub-Area Co-ordinator for NAVAREA IX (the Middle East Gulf and its Approaches) co-ordinating a NAVTEX service within the framework of the WWNWS system established jointly by the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

Commercial Marine Engineering - With a long history of expertise and intimate knowledge of the maritime navigation requirements of the Gulf, MENAS provides engineering services to port authorities and private sector industry with marine infrastructure requirements. Engineering solutions include the design, fabrication, supply and maintenance of AtoNs; buoys; shallow or deep-water mooring systems and berthing structures.

Training and User Consultation - MENAS consults with user groups and other stakeholders in the formulation of policy, to ensure that Aids to Navigation in the Gulf waters meet both the requirements of mariners, and comply with internationally accepted standards. Marine consultancy and IALA-endorsed Aids to Navigation training is also provided to various entities by Training Instructors with qualifications not present anywhere else in the region.

Quality standards - MENAS operates an ISO 9001:2008 quality-assured service, certified by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance and is an associate member of International Association of Lighthouse Authorities (IALA). It is also a corporate member of the International Marine Contractor Association (IMCA) and maintains active links with various other organisations and hydrographic offices worldwide.

MENAS Marine Services Ltd. (MMSL) is the owner and operator of the Offshore Support Vessel, ‘RELUME’, which is chartered for use in offshore marine exploration and production of oil, gas and renewable energy sources. Currently working mainly in Northern Europe, ‘Relume’ is capable of working worldwide. She is chartered to exploration and production clients on an opportunity basis, providing a full portfolio of marine and offshore services.

Following her commissioning in 2004, Relume assumed a key role in bouyage operations for MENAS in the Arabian Gulf. This was followed in 2006 with a two-year charter with EMGS conducting electromagnetic surveys all round Norwegian waters in the North Sea, as far north as the Arctic Ocean off Hammerfest and Honningsvag, on behalf of clients including StatOil and Shell amongst others. She also conducted a successful 3 month West African campaign conducting electromagnetic surveys off the Congo and Ghana in early 2007. In 2008, three months of ROV trenching support followed, for TYCO on the Dan-Ice fibre optic cable lay from Demark up through offshore Norway.

Short term contracts such as these were replaced when Relume was chartered on behalf of Fluor for a diving campaign with RED7 for the construction phase of the Greater Gabbard Windfarm. Initially chartered for a 4 month period, Relume proved so adept at the  varied tasks required during the construction phase, including diving; inspection; ROV Survey and UXO, that the charter was extended to 3 years, completing in 2012.

For the following two years Relume then went to work for ISS in Aberdeen (shortly to become Harkand), conducting survey and inspection works for oil majors including BP, Maersk, BG Group, Petrex and TAQA across the North Sea's Danish, German and Norwegian sectors.

2014 saw the start of a 12 month refit and upgrade of Relume, including installation of a new crane, upgraded bow thrusters, upgraded DP System and upgraded accommodation taking POB to 66 including revisions to office workspaces for clients.

OSV Relume is currently operating with charter roles such as air diving in the North Sea Placid Field for GDF; UXO operations in the Eems Estuary for Tianel / Tennet RAS euro; Air Diving and ROV inspection programme at Borkum, Gode Wind and Anhold Windfarms for DONG energy and ROV ops for TOTAL E&P Nederland amongst many other critical assignments.

Over the last several decades and in addition to its role within the Arabian Gulf, MENAS installed and maintained a system of navigational aids along the Omani coast and approaches to the Gulf.

International law requires sovereign states to provide navigational aids within territorial limits for passing vessels and, around the time of the millennium, the Sultanate of Oman assumed a more direct involvement in such maritime responsibilities. MENAS offered to provide the essential technical knowledge and, through skills transfer, assist in building a viable navigation aids operation within Oman.

By Royal Decree, the Sultanate granted a concession to Arabian Maritime and Navigation Aids Services (AMNAS), a newly formed Omani company, to maintain navigational aids, with MENAS assisting in its development together with its local investors The Seven Seas Group.

12 years on and after successfully expanding the infrastructure of Oman’s nav aids service, AMNAS has all the operational knowledge and technical resources to ensure safe maritime navigation whilst trading with Oman or passing by into the Gulf.

AMNAS activities include, but are not limited to:

The efficient operation and planned maintenance of Aids to Navigation equipment and structures such as lighthouses, beacons, Racons and buoys situated along the Sultanate’s 1,709 nautical mile (3,600 kilometre) coastline and offshore islands.

Strategic management of the service to ensure that the Sultanate’s AtoN navigational aid network meets the standards set by the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA), as directed by International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Development of Government endorsed plans to enhance and extend the existing network of AtoN with value added features such as DGPS and GMDSS features to meet both current and future patterns of maritime traffic density.