Lower-emission wellboat launched in Turkey

Like its sister ship, the MS Harald Martin will be 84 metres long and 19 metres wide. The vessel is built with a liquid natural gas (LNG) / battery hybrid propulsion system. Together with shore power connection, this technology will reduce total greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20%, and NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions by 90% compared with current wellboats.

It is also expected that fuel costs will be reduced by 30% compared to diesel propulsion. 

NOx fund

The project has received NOK 56 million in support from the NOx Fund, which is financed by 15 Norwegian business organisations as a more constructive alternative to paying a NOx emissions tax. 

The significant support for the Harald Martin is based on the large NOx reduction the vessel achieves by using LNG instead of diesel. The emission cut is estimated at 136,000 kg NOx. This corresponds to NOx emissions from approximately 85,000 new diesel cars with a EURO 6 emission standard. With the new wellboats, Nordlaks will be a pioneer in its ship segment. 

“We have long called for the use of gas engines for wellboats and hope more people will learn from this and follow suit,” said NOx Fund general manager Tommy Johnsen.

600 tonnes of fish

In addition to the NOx Fund support, Norway’s green energy agency Enova has contributed just over NOK 3.1m to the vessel. 

Harald Martin will have the capacity to hold more than 600 tonnes of live fish and will mainly transport live salmon and rainbow trout between Nordlaks’ land-based hatchery, to food fish locations at sea and on to the harvest station on Børøya in Hadsel. The vessel is, like Bjørg Pauline, designed by NSK Ship Design in Harstad. It is expected to be delivered in 2021. 

Nordlaks is the company that owns the Havfarm, a huge ship-shaped salmon farm which is due to be stocked with 2.3 million fish by the end of this month.