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Iceland’s Foreign Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson announced in an open meeting in Fosnavaag, Norway, yesterday, the making of a contract to build Iceland’s first platform supply vessel for servicing oil exploration and production in the waters off north and east Iceland.
Össur Skarphéðinsson. Photo: Páll Stefánsson/Iceland Review.
At ISK 7.3 billion (USD 58 million, EUR 45 million) the ship is the most expensive in the Icelandic fleet and due to be completed and delivered to its owners, Fafnir Offshore, in July 2014, as stated in a press release.
Össur said in a press release that Icelanders were ready to face the challenges of a changing Arctic. “I welcome the initiative of Fafnir Offshore and I predict this heralds a new chapter in the industrial history of Iceland as this is the first vessel specially built for future services to offshore fields north of Iceland. Already, the first licenses have been issued in the Dreki area and I feel certain that the contract on the new vessel is the beginning of a prosperous offshore service industry in Iceland.”
Measuring 88.5 meters long and 17.6 meters wide, the boat is specially built and reinforced for conditions in the Arctic. The ship will have a helicopter platform and a fire fighting unit and emergency oil recovery and reduction system.
The Icelandic base for the vessel will be Fjarðabyggð, East Iceland.
ZR
The number of tourists in Iceland has been going up almost every year and a forecast by Arion bank predicts that the number will be about 750 thousand in 2013, increase over 800 thousand in 2014 and go up to 870 thousand in 2015.
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Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson attended an annual consultative meeting last weekend with colleagues from the Nordic and several African countries, as announced in a press release from the Minstry of Foreign Affairs.
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From many salmon rivers anglers are reporting great opening days. Reykjavík Citizen of the year caught the first salmn in Ellidaár in Reykjavík this morning.
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The Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved new names for nine craters on Mercury including one for Icelandic littereture Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness.
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The 2013 June-July issue of Iceland Review is out. Themed ‘We Are Young’ the magazine celebrates the arrival of summer by interviewing young energetic Icelanders who excel in art, sports, business and politics—and Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, the youngest PM in the republic’s history and the world’s youngest ruling state leader. Click here to take a look at a selection of the current issue and here to subscribe to the magazine.
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REVIEWS
amiina
The road to Höfn, a 1,690-person harbor town by the fjord Hornafjörður, is lined with reindeer. Whole herds of the wild horned animals rest peacefully on withered pastures, grace next to sheep and horses and bounce along the road. Soon, Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier and the region’s biggest attraction, comes into view. Looming over Höfn, its outlet glaciers flow down from the mountains on which the bright white icecap rests.
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Sin Fang will celebrate the release of his third album with a release concert in Iðnó on June 12. Flowers was released in February by Morr Music and has been well received by music enthusiasts and critics alike. The concert will be supported by Vök, this year’s winners of the Icelandic Music Experiments.
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