Hull of Norwegian-owned vessel launched in Turkey

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg attended the launch of the hull of the Norwegian-owned offshore vessel the M/S Grand Canyon at the Bogazici Tersan shipyard in Yalova, Turkey. The vessel will now be towed to Norway and completed at the Bergen Group Fosen shipyard in Rissa, near Trondheim.

During the ceremony, Stoltenberg pointed out that it was no coincidence that the launch was on his itinerary during his visit to Turkey.

“Norway and Turkey have a long tradition of business cooperation in the maritime sector. Tersan shipyard alone now has a total of eight hulls and ships on order for Norwegian interests, worth a total of almost NOK 2 billion,” Mr Stoltenberg said.
Turkish Minister of Transport and Communication Binali Yildirim was also present at the launch, together with a number of key representatives of the Turkish and Norwegian maritime sectors.

Mr Stoltenberg was also able to see the M/S Høydal, a Norwegian ship which is being built at the yard on behalf of the company NSK Shipping, based in North Norway. The M/S Høydal is a specially designed cargo ship that will be assigned to the fish feed manufacturer BioMar in Norway. This will be the world’s first LNG-powered coaster, and the vessel should be ready to load her first cargo in Norway in May 2012. The M/S Høydal will have a cargo capacity of 2200 tonnes of fish feed, making her the world’s largest operational fish feed cargo vessel. Natural gas (LNG) propulsion will make the vessel environmentally friendly and reduce emissions of NOx (nitrogen oxides) by over 90 %.

The visit to the shipyard was the last item on Mr Stoltenberg’s schedule during his two-day visit to Turkey.