Ship supply delivery at anchorage in Fujairah and Khor Fakkan

The Fujairah Anchorage Area (FAA) offers up to 174 anchor positions and is managed by the Port of Fujairah’s Marine Department. It is served out of the service harbour by a fleet of more than 107 utility boats owned and operated by shipping agencies and diving companies. The anchorage is split by purpose: area C is for ships needing marine services other than bunkers, lube oil or de-sloping, while BN and BS take ships receiving bunkers, lube oil or de-sloping along with other services.^[1,2]

The service harbour is the loading point for supplies. The port lists "loading of stores, spare parts etc. for supply at FAA", covered cargo storage bays, labour and equipment to move cargo between land and supply boat, crew drop-off and pick-up, and supply of electricity and fresh water. Piers A (480 m) and B (412 m) berth the supply and utility vessels; the harbour takes 120 service vessels and tugs of different sizes.^[5]

In practice the chain is: supplier trucks the goods to the service harbour; the agent’s (or a hired) utility boat loads them; the boat runs out to the ship’s anchor position; the crew hoists the goods aboard. Under the ISSA conditions the supplier’s transport responsibility ends at the nearest point to the vessel its vehicle can reach — at an anchorage that is the quay, so the boat leg must be agreed separately (see launch boat delivery).^[14]

• A local agent based in Fujairah is required for any vessel using the anchorage, and permission to anchor comes from the Port Control Tower first. The agent is responsible from arrival until sailing.^[2,3]
• Meetings between steaming vessels and service boats are prohibited inside the FAA — the ship must be at anchor to be served.^[2]
• Fujairah-based utility boats may serve ships in Fujairah territorial waters only; serving vessels off port limits (beyond 12 NM) is strictly prohibited. Offshore passes are issued for boarding ships at the FAA only. This is why an OPL delivery off Fujairah needs a different arrangement.^[3]
• Utility boats must be under 50 m, carry AIS Class A, radar and GPS, be run by companies holding a Fujairah Municipality trading licence, and work Port Control on VHF 12, which also grants permission to enter or leave the service harbour.^[3,4]
• Ship chandlers may not supply medicines at the FAA; only Ministry of Health–approved suppliers registered with the port may. Order medical stores separately.^[3]
• No stores or spares may be taken alongside the Fujairah Oil Terminal berths, by boat or from shore, and no supply of any kind at the SPM terminals. Plan the delivery before or after the berth window.^[3]
• Cargo transfer at the anchorage is prohibited except approved STS, bunkering and de-sloping; ships at security level 2 or 3 may receive services — fresh water, crew change, stores — for 12 hours at most.^[3]

The boat skipper must check that everyone aboard has offshore passes from the port immigration section, and that the items and provisions for each vessel are correct before leaving the harbour — and that all cargo belongs to the agent’s vessel and is exactly as requested by the master or owner. A clean, per-vessel packing list is what lets that check pass quickly.^[3]

Khor Fakkan lies in Sharjah. Since 20 October 2023, service boats registered with the Port of Fujairah are prohibited from serving vessels at the Khor Fakkan or Kalba anchorage areas — including water, slop and lube barges and diving support, but excluding bunker barges — according to GAC’s report of Port of Fujairah Notice to Agent 63/2023. A Fujairah boat booked for a Khor Fakkan ship will not go.^[7]

Sharjah Ports Authority lists bunkering, fresh water and marine services across its harbours, and physical bunker barges have worked the Khorfakkan anchorage since 2024. Rules for supply boats at the Khorfakkan anchorage are set by Sharjah Ports Authority — confirm with your agent who may serve the ship and from which quay. Inchcape’s advisory of 15 July 2026 reported anchorage services at Fujairah, Khor Fakkan and Dibba operating normally.^[12,13,9]

The Port of Fujairah tariff asks for 72 hours’ notice of a vessel’s arrival and lists a bonded stores list (two copies) among arrival documents — for ships calling the port. Agents are told to submit the clearance request at least two hours, and not earlier than four hours, before sailing; anything still on a boat at that point is late. Ships arriving from official ports (not from OPL) may stay up to 10 days free of charge.^[6,3]

No official cut-off for booking a supply boat is published, and we found no launch operating hours or night rule. Treat the boat as the scarce resource: give the supplier and agent the ETA, anchorage area and a sailing window as early as you have them, and expect deliveries outside normal port hours or on holidays to cost more under the ISSA conditions.^[14]

Agents at Fujairah commonly run the boat leg: one agency’s husbandry contract covers ship supply, spare-parts handling and logistics for a tanker fleet at the Fujairah, Khor Fakkan and Singapore anchorages, around 450 jobs a year; another agency’s crew boat at Fujairah carries crew and delivers spare parts, water and food. Freight forwarders also hire supply boats — one reported more than 200 deliveries in UAE waters in 2023 to ships at the OPL and inner anchorages.^[8,10,11]

• Agent (port agent, husbandry): anchorage permission, boat booking, offshore passes, clearance, customs paperwork for owner-sent parts.
• Supplier: goods packed and labelled per vessel, delivered to the service harbour by the agreed time, receipt notes ready.
• Forwarder: spares in transit and owners’ items flown or trucked in under the agent’s instructions.

• Vessel name, anchorage (Fujairah FAA area letter, or Khor Fakkan), ETA and sailing window.
• Agent name and contact — the supplier needs it to put goods on the right boat.
• Delivery basis: to the service harbour only, or including the boat. Ask for the boat as a separate priced line.
• Medicines on their own order to an approved medical supplier; bonded lines on their own list.
• Packing: palletised or crane-liftable lots, marked with the vessel name, with a weight per lot for the crew’s crane.
• Fresh water as a separate request — at Fujairah bulk water is arranged through the Control Tower (see fresh water at Gulf ports).^[3]

The full checklist is in how to write a requisition that gets comparable quotes. Port detail sits on our Fujairah and Khor Fakkan pages; or e-mail the requisition and suppliers at the port price it, boat included if you ask.