Knutsen OAS Shipping is a privately owned shipping company located in

Haugesund Haugesund () is a municipality on the North Sea in Rogaland county, Norway. While the population is greater in the neighboring Karmøy municipality, the main commercial and economic centre of the Haugaland region in northern Rogaland and southern ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The company has a fleet of purpose-built shuttle tankers, chemical carriers and product tankers internationally. The fleet consists of 41

shuttle tanker A shuttle tanker is a ship designed for oil transport from an off-shore oil field as an alternative to constructing oil pipelines. It is equipped with off-loading equipment compatible with the oil field in question. This normally consists of a tau ...

s, chemical carriers and

product tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk cargo, bulk transport of petroleum, oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quant ...

s. In 2009 the company had an onshore staff of 64 to handle projects and operation of the fleet, 430 administrative employees offshore and about 800 foreign employees.

Structure

History

Knutsen OAS Shipping AS was established in 1895 by Ole Andreas Knutsen. From 1900 to 1946 his son Knut Knutsen established the company as one of the largest shipping companies in Norway. In the 1970s the shuttle-tanker crises created economic difficulties for the company, and it had to restructure. In 1980 Jens Ulltveit Moe became the CEO of the company, and it became a part of the Umoe AS company. After acquiring the assets owned by Jens Ulltveit Moe in 2008, the company's new

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

in 2009 was Trygve Seglem. Its present strategy was implemented in 1984, and based on long-term contracts to first class charters. In 1984, the company got its first offshore loading contract with

Statoil Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian state owned enterprise, state-owned multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger. It is primarily a petroleum company, petroleum company, operating in 36 countries with ad ...

for two shuttle tankers. The two new-built ships ''Anna Knutsen'' and ''Ragnhild Knutsen'' were built in China and delivered in 1987. One common feature or these two pioneer ships and all other shuttle tankers owned by Knutsen OAS is dynamic position systems from the Kongsberg Group. Knutsen OAS operates one of the largest fleets of purpose-built DP-class shuttle tankers in the world. In 2008, the company was listed with 40 ships and 11 ships under construction. On January 3, 1997, the tanker ''Tove Knutsen'' spilled 50 tons of oil in the

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between th ...

estuary while discharging at a

Conoco Conoco Inc. ( ) was an American oil and gas company that operated from 1875 until 2002, when it merged with Phillips Petroleum to form ConocoPhillips. Founded by Isaac Elder Blake in 1875 as the "Continental Oil and Transportation Company". Curr ...

monobuoy. The shipping company would be fined £35,000 for the tanker officer's error, which prompted extensive cleanup on

Cleethorpes Cleethorpes () is a seaside town on the estuary of the Humber in North East Lincolnshire, England with a population of 38,372 in 2020. It has been permanently occupied since the 6th century, with fishing as its original industry, then develo ...

beach.

The fleet (per 2009)

Gas tankers

Offshore

Tank

Innovation & technology focus

The Knutsen OAS tanker segment is within the following areas: • Offshore loading and crude oil transport • Products • Chemicals • Liquefied natural gas (LNG) Knutsen OAS has since the mid-1980s grown into one of the leading shipping companies within offshore oil loading. Another increasing focus for Knutsen O.A.S is the transport of natural gas. From 2004 to 2007, 5 LNG ships were delivered and this is a segment where the company has ambitions for further expansions.

Knutsen VOC technology

This technology is a cost efficient method to reduce and limit VOC emissions during transport and loading of volatile cargoes such as crude oil. This technology limits the VOC emissions between 60 and 80% during transport and loading. In addition to reducing air emissions and, the Knutsen VOC technology reduces H2S emission from the cargo. This emission represents a hazard to the environment, the ship and also to the crews' health.

Pressurized natural gas transport

Pressurized natural gas (PNG) is a solution for maritime transport of natural gas. This technology has been developed in collaboration with Europipe GMBH (Germany) and Det Norske Veritas (Norway). In the start up of development, this technology encountered some problems due to previous pipeline regulations, but in 2003 when new regulations were in place the project received authorization. This new technology opens for new transport alternatives especially suitable for offshore loading for direct transport to the market. These technology stores gas on board the ship in specially designed cylinders at a pressure of 250 barg. In comparison to LNG maritime transport, the gas treatment is minimal and comparable to treatment required for pipeline transport. The reduction in energy recourses required to compress the gas makes is a more environmental friendly solution than LNG.

References

External links

http://www.Knutsenoas.com
Knutsen OAS official web pages {{DEFAULTSORT:Knutsen O.A.S. Shipping As Shipping companies of Norway Tanker shipping companies Transport companies established in 1895 Norwegian companies established in 1895