Tananger is a large village and urban area in

Sola Sola is a municipality and a Seaside resort in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Solakrossen. Other villages include Tananger, Hålandsm ...

municipality in

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Vestfold og Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. In 2020, it had a population of 47 ...

county,

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 urban area is located on the west side of the

Stavanger Peninsula Stavanger Peninsula ( no, Stavangerhalvøya) is a peninsula in Rogaland County, Norway. The peninsula is named for the city of Stavanger, located on its northeastern shore and it includes the most populous parts of the Greater Stavanger urban ...

between the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

and the

Hafrsfjorden Hafrsfjord or Hafrsfjorden is a fjord in the Stavanger Peninsula in Rogaland county, Norway. The long fjord forms the border between the municipalities of Stavanger and Sola. On the west side of the fjord is the large village of Tananger, on t ...

. It lies about southwest of the city centre of

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

. Tananger Chapel (from 1879) and Tananger Church (from 2002) are both located here. The village has a population (2015) of 6,377 which gives the village a

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of . Tananger has grown significantly, more than doubling in size from 1980 until 2015. Since 1 January 2017, the urban area of Tananger has been included in the

Stavanger/Sandnes Stavanger/Sandnes is the third largest urban area in Norway. It consists of the densely built-up areas in the municipalities of Stavanger, Sandnes, Sola, and Randaberg, most of which are located on the Stavanger Peninsula, its surrounding islands ...

urban area, so separate population statistics are no longer tracked.

History

Tananger (mentioned in sources dated to 1608), was used as a safe haven in times of bad weather. It was considered the best and deepest harbour north of

Egersund Egersund is a town in Eigersund municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The town is located along the southwestern coast of Norway, about south of the city of Stavanger. The town is situated along a strait which separates the mainland from t ...

. In 1650, the village was gradually settled, as the local

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

fishing was valued for its worth as an export article. Since then, trading with lobster, fish as well as exclusive articles such as tobacco, coffee, and tea, that came with the bigger ships that sought port in storms, led to the establishment of a

customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

station under the main customs office in Stavanger in 1777 and it lasted here until 1958. The dangerous rocks in the seas just outside Tananger made the waters so perilous that a

Piloting Piloting or pilotage is the process of navigating on water or in the air using fixed points of reference on the sea or on land, usually with reference to a nautical chart or aeronautical chart to obtain a fix of the position of the vessel or air ...

service existed as early as 1679, but was organised in 1720 under national control. Tananger upholds its piloting service to this day, but the customers are mostly

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

and merchant vessels. During the

Napoleonic wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, cannon-mounted rowing boats were stationed in Tananger. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Norwegian Navy The Royal Norwegian Navy ( no, Sjøforsvaret, , Sea defence) is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for naval operations of Norway. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 in mobilized state, ...

vessels were stationed here for neutrality-watch. In 1965, the oil adventure started with Aker-Norsco establishing in Tananger as one of the first supply bases to the offshore activities.

Economy

Several oil companies are located here including

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...

and

ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in ...

. Apart from the oil companies, some of the major oil service companies

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...

Halliburton Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries ...

, and

Baker Hughes Baker Hughes Company, organized in Delaware and headquartered in Houston, is one of the world's largest oil field services companies. The company provides products and services for oil well drilling, formation evaluation, completion, productio ...

are located in the Risavika harbour area. Risavika harbour has been expanded using infill to enlarge its capacity. There are international ferries to Denmark that leave from Tananger. Also located in Risavika harbour is an NGL plant run by electricity company

Lyse Energi Lyse (Norwegian for ''(to) light'') is an industrial and multi-utility company based in Jæren and Ryfylke, Norway. The company has a yearly normal production of 9.5 TWh of hydroelectric power, develops and maintains the power grid in 14 munici ...

References

{{use dmy dates, date=August 2020 Sola Villages in Rogaland Populated coastal places in Norway