Southern Norway News

Höegh Autoliners announced it is partnering with Norwegian green energy provider North Ammonia for the supply, distribution, delivery and consumption of green ammonia, a carbon free fuel produced using renewable energy.Under the deal, North Ammonia—established by Grieg Maritime Group and Arendals Fossekompani in 2021—will supply Höegh Autoliners with green ammonia from its planned production facility in Arendal in southern Norway.Höegh Autoliners currently has on order eight ammonia…

Swedish builder Marell Boats recently delivered the first in a series of five new Marell M12 RIB patrol boats for the Norwegian Police.The multipurpose fast patrolling and interceptor vessels will be delivered through the first quarter 2023, entering operations at five different locations along the coastline in southern Norway.The medium-sized, aluminum-hulled patrol boats will be used for patrolling and assignments such as surveillance, search and rescue, boarding and control of recreational boats.

Oil and gas company Neptune Energy has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Norwegian low-carbon tech firm Horisont Energi to develop the Errai Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project in Norway.According to Neptune Energy, Errai could store 4-8 million tonnes of CO2 annually, with the potential to store more in later phases. The project includes an onshore terminal for intermediate CO2 storage, with the intention to permanently store the CO2 in an offshore reservoir.The onshore terminal would be capable of receiving CO2 from European and domestic customers…

Norway's Yara and Azane Fuel Solutions have signed a deal to create a Scandinavian network of bunker terminals to supply ships with zero-carbon ammonia as marine fuel, the companies said on Friday.They said the network will make "green" ammonia - produced from renewable electricity - available for the shipping industry in the region by 2024, which is also when the first ships with ammonia-fueled engines are expected to enter the market.A hydrogen-carrying chemical primarily used as a fertilizer…

NAVTOR CEO Tor Svanes is "Mr. ECDIS", at least that't the title he's been given in a new book charting his life story as well as his role in the development of maritime e-Navigation. Author Tønnes H. Gundersen details the voyage that took Svanes from electrician’s apprentice in the small town of Egersund, Southern Norway, to a globally renowned figure in this key smart shipping niche. And, Svanes is keen to add, the journey isn’t over yet.Gundersen spent more than two years researching, interviewing and writing the 300-page opus, which was launched today in both English and Norwegian versions.

It was Canadian whalers, the Norwegians tell us, who first noticed that a dead whale does not bob in the waves. The carcass didn’t pitch or roll, either, and it was somehow “self-propelled” — its fins giving it forward motion and acting as stabilizers, or foils. The story still inspires Trondheim company Wavefoil, maker of scalable, retractable foils that offer ship owners and designers fuel savings and passenger comfort. In Norway, high-speed ferries, cruise ships and fishing vessels are the first customers for retrofits and newbuilds.

Oil workers have been evacuated from the Statfjord A platform in the North Sea after it was struck by a platform supply vessel (PSV), Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor said on Friday.The platform was not producing when it was struck by the support vessel Sjøborg during loading operations at 1:55 a.m., and there were no injuries to the 276 people on the platform, Equinor said.The Statfjord A platform has been shut since the end of May for maintenance expected to last through July…

Norway is growing its arsenal of military grade drones for missions that’ll take them into the exhaust streams of ship’s funnels. With the IMO now supporting the 0.1 percent sulfur cap on marine fuel from Jan. 2020, and with southern Norway below the 62nd parallel officially a European Emissions Control Area, or ECA, the Norwegian Maritime Authority, the NMA, is cracking down on illegal sulfur emissions.Oslo’s NMA and its domestic enforcement allies — the Norwegian Coast Guard (Kystvakten)…

A luxury cruise ship that had set sail with almost 1,400 passengers and crew aboard arrived at a port in Norway on Sunday after narrowly escaping disaster when its engines failed during a storm.The Viking Sky sent out a mayday signal on Saturday as it drifted in rough waters in the Norwegian Sea to within 100 metres of land.Rescue services airlifted 479 people, hoisting them one-by- one on to helicopters, before the weather subsided on Sunday and a tow could begin. Many of them were senior citizens.A total of 1,373 people had started the voyage and about 900 people were still on board as the ship arrived at the port of Molde on Norway's west coast."It was very nearly a disaster.

Viking's new LifeCraft system, a hybrid system intended to replace lifeboats/liferafts, was recently put to the test and passed some very demanding conditions.Developed over the last 10 years by VIKING Life-Saving Equipment the new evacuation system unites the advantages of modern lifeboats – such as self-propelled maneuverability – with the flexibility, comfort and smaller footprint of today’s liferafts combined with marine evacuation systems.The solution comprises two main elements: four inflatable VIKING LifeCraft survival crafts each with a capacity of 203 persons…

An oil tanker and a Norwegian navy frigate collided off Norway's west coast on Thursday, injuring eight people and triggering the temporary shutdown of a North Sea crude export terminal, Norway's top gas processing plant and several offshore fields.The frigate, which recently took part in a major NATO military exercise, was aground and tilting on one side, live television pictures showed. The Norwegian military was attempting to save the ship."We are working on stabilizing the vessel…

A six meter long, 2.4 ton model of the final design of the autonomous and fully electric container vessel Yara Birkeland was revealed as testing commenced at SINTEF Ocean’s 80 meter test tank facility in Trondheim, September 28, 2017. It was also revealed that ENOVA, a Norwegian government enterprise responsible for promotion of environmentally friendly production and consumption of energy will support the project with a NOK 133 million ($16.7 million) financial contribution.

Record hauls of wild fish, an unprecedented return on farmed salmon, finance and subsidy garner new orders, new designs and emboldened suppliers. In Scandinavia, particularly Norway, rich, carefully managed fisheries raise just one question for the commercially minded — which wave of business to ride. A growing number of large and small players are in on the action, as historic profits are heralded up and down the supply chain. For the hardened makers of gear that know tougher times, this is the golden age.

Loose barge drifts by platforms in North Sea; BP platform evacuated, output shut down. A fierce storm in the North Sea forced oil firms to evacuate platforms and shut down production on Thursday on concerns that they could be hit by a drifting barge that had broken its anchor. The strong winds had ripped the barge from its moorings and sent it towards BP's Valhall platform, which lies in the middle of the North Sea between Norway and Britain. This prompted the oil and gas company to shut down output and evacuate dozens of staff on board. ConocoPhillips also stopped production and removed crew from installations in the same area. A spokeswoman for the Rescue Coordination Centre for southern Norway told Reuters the barge eventually missed the BP platform by some two kilometres.

A drifting barge has missed BP's Valhall platform in the North Sea by some two kilometres, a spokeswoman for the Rescue Coordination Centre for southern Norway told Reuters. "The barge drifted past by some two kilometres. The danger is over. There are no other installations between the barge and the coast of Norway," Borghild Eldoen said in an interview. "It is now up to the owners of the barge to stop it before it reaches the coast."   Reporting by Gwladys Fouche

Norway's government will this spring launch a strategy to develop technology for capturing and burying heat-trapping emissions from polluting industries, aiming to make good on a pledge to build a full-size plant by 2020. Proponents of carbon capture and storage (CCS) hope the oil-rich nation will join Britain and the Netherlands in funding a handful of schemes to keep Europe from falling behind other major economies in adopting the technology. Europe had once aimed to take a global lead in the development of CCS, which bodies such as the International Energy Agency view as essential to meet a globally agreed goal of limiting temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius.

Norway-based shipping company Fjord Line’s Stavangerfjord represents a new-generation of advanced and environmentally friendly Cruise Passenger Ferry with outstanding passenger facilities in order to operate both as a day and night ferry. The vessel is built to provide passengers with pleasant experiences, even under the harsh weather conditions of the North Sea. A modern and flexible interior design provides a capacity for 1,500 passengers (1,200 passenger during winter), and a total of 306 cabins on two decks provide first class accommodation and a variety of restaurants…

'Navion Anglia' (pictured) has commenced the sea passage to Las Palmas with the HiLoad Dynamic Positioning No. 1 safely docked at her port side. Late 2012, Teekay Offshore announced an agreement to acquire this self-propelled dynamic positioning (DP) system that attaches to and keeps conventional tankers in position when loading from offshore installations. Now Teekay say that the HiLoad DP is safely docked to the 'Navion Anglia' and bound for operation at Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands.

MAN Diesel & Turbo signed a contract on 7 July 2011 in Frederikshavn, Denmark for the supply of 4 × MAN 8L32/40 engines to power a seismic vessel ordered by Sanco Shipping of Norway. The vessel will be built by Kleven Maritime at Myklebust shipyard in southern Norway and is scheduled for delivery by 31 May, 2013. The four-stroke engines will be constructed in Augsburg, headquarters of MAN Diesel & Turbo and a four-stroke engine production site in its own right. The company attributes the landing of the new order to its presence in Aalesund…

AP reported that a missing unmanned submarine was found Tuesday by a man strolling along a beach in western Norway. The 11-foot mini-sub, or Battlespace Preparation Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, disappeared in late April during tests off the port of Kristiansand in southern Norway, from its its mother ship, the minesweeper USS Swift. This type submarine was not remote controlled, but pre-programed before its launch to search for mines and, if necessary, destroy them. However, it never surfaced, leading the Swift to break off its participation in a military exercise and spend a week searching for it. The mini-sub turned up about 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the north.

Voltimum Founder Member Company ABB has won a contract from BP Plc in Norway to supply equipment for an underwater power link that will increase reliable and safe electricity supply and, it is claimed, help reduce greenhouse gas emissions: ABB will supply the converter stations at each end of the 292km cable which will bring DC power from Lista in southern Norway to the Valhall oil field in the North Sea where it will be converted to AC. The system uses High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Light technology, an ABB innovation for delivering high-voltage power underground and underwater. Source: Voltimum

ABB has won a contract worth $50m from BP Plc in Norway to supply equipment for an underwater power link that will increase reliable and safe electricity supply and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ABB will supply the converter stations at each end of the 292-kilometer cable which will bring Direct Current power from Lista in southern Norway to the Valhall oil field in the North Sea where it will be converted to Alternating Current. The system uses High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Light technology, an ABB innovation for delivering high-voltage power underground and underwater. The installation will deliver 78 megawatts of power when it starts operating in 2009, enough to run Valhall and other platforms in the field.