Norway Orders Two New LNG Ferries

Norway’s Vard, part of Italy’s Fincantieri shipbuilding and defence group, has won a contract worth NKr 600mn ($70mn) to build two LNG-fuelled ferries for Norway’s Torghatten Nord ferry operator. Each will have capacity to accommodate up to 180 cars and 550 passengers and crew.

Delivery of the ferries is scheduled from the Vard’s Brevik shipyard in Norway in 3Q 2018 and 4Q 2018 respectively, said Vard January 10, with their hulls to be built by Vard's Braila yard in Romania. The ferries are intended to be used in western Norway on the Halhjem-Sandvikvag route (south of Bergen) where Torghatten Nord has a five-year contract with the Norwegian government.

Vard’s Langsten yard in Norway delivered the world’s first LNG ferry, Glutra, back in 2000. Trieste-based Fincantieri owns 55.63% of Vard which has been Singapore-listed since 2010. Torghatten Nord has previously had LNG-fuelled ferries built by Polish shipbuilder Remontowa.

The world’s first LNG ferry, Glutra, is now operated by Norway's Fjord1 (Photo credit: Wartsila)

At least 55 LNG-fuelled ships, many of them ferries, are operating in Norway today. According to DNV-GL, Norway has about two-thirds of the LNG-fuelled merchant and passenger ships afloat worldwide.

Mark Smedley