NORWEGIAN PRIME MINISTER IN TERSAN

01-10-2012

Tersan Shipyard launched Multipurpose Offshore Construction Vessel, Grand Canyon with the honorable presences of Norway Prime Minister Mr. Jens Stoltenberg and Turkey Minister of Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communication Mr. Binali Yıldırım.

Grand Canyon is a cooperation of Tersan Shipyard with Bergen Fosen in order to build a very high standard Offshore Construction Vessel for the Owner, Volstad Maritime. Grand Canyon is a 125meter long, 25 meters width, electric propulsion offshore vessel with Helicopter deck, DP III notation, 6 pcs of Side Maneuvering Thrusters and accommodation for 108 persons. During the ceremony, Mr. 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 ships on order for Norwegian interests, worth a total of almost NOK 2 billion,” Mr Stoltenberg said. Mr Stoltenberg was also able to see the M/S Høydal, a Norwegian ship which is being built also at Tersan 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 % Mr. Binali pointed out the increased capacities of Turkish Shipyards and highlighted that he had attended to another launching ceremony in Tersan Shipyard just 4 months ago, this represents Tersan Shipyards and Turkey’s achieved high level of Ship production as well as quality; “When I was the General Manager of IDO, Turkey used to import ships from Norway just 10 years ago now we are exporting vessel to Norway” said Mr. Yildirim.