Norway-based Bergen Tankers is to convert one of its fuel oil bunkering vessels into an LNG bunkering ship as part of a long-term charter with Gasnor, a part of Royal Dutch Shell.
The company hired the compatriot maritime solutions provider Høglund to deliver a cargo handling system (CHS) for the retrofit of the small bunker tanker, previously known as Oslo Tank.
The 850-dwt Bergen LNG will be the first LNG bunkering vessel to operate in Norway, the parties said. It will be deployed in Bergen harbour from the fourth quarter of 2020 and serve future LNG cruise ships from Hurtigruten and Havila Coastal Route.
“This retrofit is a complex technical challenge from both a hardware and software engineering point of view,” Ingemar Tønder Presthus, Technical & Marine Manager, Bergen Tankers said.
The conversion comes on the back of a long-term LNG supply deal signed Norwegian expedition cruise operator Hurtigruten and Gasnor in June 2019.
Under the deal, Gasnor is to supply the company’s ships along the Norwegian coast with LNG until 2030.