Norway’s Amon Maritime is setting up an offshore shipping company to develop ammonia-fuelled platform supply vessels.
The clean shipping company, backed by Mosvolds Rederi, said the new ships could be up and running for start-up Amon Offshore by 2025.
The design has received approval in principle from classification society DNV and has preliminary flag approval from the Norwegian Maritime Authority — the world’s first such approval for an ammonia-powered ship.
Amon described the vessels as “carbon-free workhorses for the North Sea”, where there will be huge demand for such zero-emission ships.
“Amon Offshore has been created to build, own and operate a fleet of ammonia-powered supply ships for the Norwegian Continental Shelf,” it said.
The vessels have been developed to meet oil companies’ current and future offshore logistics needs, setting a new standard for North Sea PSVs, Amon believes.
The government has stated that all PSVs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf will be emission-free by 2030.
Amon said this requires about 80 newbuildings, significantly modified or rebuilt vessels to be delivered between 2025 and 2030.
This will be a “massive boost for innovation and value creation in the maritime industry”, it argued. No new PSVs have been ordered since 2019, after years of poor markets.
Amon told TradeWinds it “intends to take a meaningful market share” of these new ships.
A spokesman said the company has had discussions with several yards in Europe and Asia, and it is not yet known where it will order.
“This is the next generation,” said founder and chief executive Andre Risholm.
“We are combining new technologies with future requirements, enabling capabilities only available for newbuilding. Our vessels will be carbon-free, future-proof and holistically designed for ammonia fuel from the ground up.”
Ammonia fuel will be made available by another Amon venture, bunker company Azane Fuel Solutions. The bunkers will be supplied by project partner Yara Clean Ammonia.
The new vessels will be managed by Amon Maritime’s in-house ship management set-up in Norway in April, Ula Ship Management.
This company is a joint venture with Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement.
Amon Offshore is working closely with clients to obtain charter contracts, against which the ships will be ordered.
“In combination with investment grants, we have optionality on financing,” the spokesman said.
“This ranges from regular bank debt and project finance to green bonds and other types of structured financing. We see substantial interest from the financial markets for our ship projects as we are bringing zero-carbon vessels to the market.”
The project began in 2020 but has been kept under wraps until now. Technology company Kongsberg Maritime has also been involved in ship design.
Amon is an investor in Norwegian start-up Viridis Bulk Carriers, which is on track to order the world’s first ammonia-fuelled bulkers.
The company is a joint venture also involving Mosvolds Rederi and Faroese owner Navigare Logistics.
Shortsea charters are in place with seven cargo owners for the initial five 5,000-dwt carriers.
Established Norwegian owner Eidesvik Offshore has said it is working on converting an existing PSV to ammonia power.
