Minister announces contract for building Iceland's first platform supply vessel

Today, at a meeting in Fosnavåg, Norway, Foreign Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson announced that a private Icelandic oil service company had made a contract for building Iceland's first platform supply vessel for servicing oil search and offshore fields north of Iceland. The new vessel will be the most expensive ship ever in the Icelandic fleet, costing 7,3 billion ISK and is due to be delivered to its owners, Fafnir Offshore, in July 2014.  

The Foreign Minister stated that Iceland is ready to embrace the opportunities and meet the challenges being brought by the changes in the High North. “I welcome the initiative of Fafnir Offshore and I predict this heralds a new chapter in the industrial history of Iceland as this is the first vessel specially built for future services to offshore fields north of Iceland. Already, the first licences have been issued in the Dreki area and I feel certain that the contract on the new vessel is the beginning of a prosperous offshore service industry in Iceland.”

The ship is specially built for operations under extremely harsh conditions in the North Atlantic. It is 88.5 meter long and 17.6 meter wide.  The ship as a helideck, is equipped with a fire fighting unit, an emergency oil recovery system and reduction unit for minimum environmental effects.

The owner of Fafnir is Steingrimur Erlingsson, who has worked and invested in the maritime industry for 20 years.

The Icelandic base for the new vessel will be in Fjarðabyggð.