From Norway to the Black Sea with the Polish local content

By Marek Grzybowski

The Norwegian shipyard Green Yard Kleven will build a vessel that will handle a gas production platform operated by Romanian energy company OMV Petrom S.A. The “Field Support Vessel” (FSV) will be used as part of the Neptun Deep project. The hull will be made in Poland.

Neptun Deep is the largest natural gas system construction project in the Black Sea. It is the first deep-water offshore project in Romania. Its aim is to increase the country’s energy security. The contract was signed in early October 2024, and the vessel is scheduled to be delivered to the gas field operator in the second half of 2026.

– This is a day of joy at Green Yard Kleven. Since taking over the shipyard in 2020, we have worked intensively to establish ourselves in the new construction market – said Hans Jørgen Fedog, CEO of Green Yard Kleven.

Therefore, Fedog, emphasizing the marketing success of the Norwegian shipyard built on direct relationships, stated: “We are very pleased that OMV Petrom chose us for this contract. It was an extremely satisfying cooperation from start to finish, with great trust between the parties.”

Norwegian ship on a Polish hull
The ship will service an unmanned gas platform in the Black Sea, which is part of the production infrastructure of the Neptun Deep project. The ship will also be a base for technicians servicing the platform. At the same time, it will be a floating warehouse for components and tools. The team operating on the ship, built by Green Yard Kleven, will be engaged in lighter missions at sea.

It will be an 89.5-meter catamaran with a W2W (Walk to Work) platform, an offshore crane and cabins and social equipment for 90 people. The crew and assemblers will rest in individual cabins. The hull will be built by Montex Shipyard in Poland and is to be delivered to Ulsteinvik in early 2026, the Norwegian shipyard announces.

Montex Shipyard was founded on November 26, 2012 in Gdańsk by Piotr Dębowski and Sebastian Wasiołek. The partners contributed their know-how, competences, knowledge and skills to conduct business in the industrial, shipbuilding and metallurgical markets – informs Montex. We wrote about the shipyard here

The vessel was designed by local Norwegian company Marin Teknikk and is designated MT-6067 FSV. Several local subcontractors from Norway will be involved in the project.

– The local branch of Seabrokers in Fosnavåg also made a major contribution to the implementation of this task. We want to cooperate with local partners as much as possible and we believe that we will achieve some good local cooperation in this project, says Rune Gamlem, Sales Manager at Green Yard Kleven.

Green Yard Kleven has always had the key competences to be able to build new innovative vessels and is therefore very well prepared for this task. We are really looking forward to this project, emphasize Rune Gamlem and Hans Jørgen Fedog.

Crewed vessel for unmanned platform

Romanian OMV Petrom is the largest energy producer in Southeastern Europe, with the Group’s annual hydrocarbon production of around 41 million boe in 2023. The Group has a refining capacity of 4.5 million tons per year and operates an 860 MW gas-fired power plant.

The Group is present in the retail market of petroleum products in Romania and neighboring countries through approximately 780 service stations under two brands – OMV and Petrom. OMV Petrom acts as the operator of the Neptun Deep project, as part of a joint operating agreement.

The Green Yard Kleven shipyards in Ulsteinvik and Green Yard Feda in Flekkefjord belong to the Green Yard Group. The shipyards have a solid portfolio of ship and drilling platform production for both Norwegian and international customers. The Norwegian shipyards also provide drilling platform service, ship recycling and mobile shipyard services.

Green Yard Group has converted the shipyards to environmentally conscious production. It is emphasized that the production of ships and platforms is based on procedures that take into account the requirements of sustainable development, high quality and on-time delivery. Both shipyards are ISO certified for environment and quality.