Opportunities to increase fish farming, represents the basis for new growth for Ocean Aquafarms and other companies with owners that have extensive experience from the oil industry. Industrialising production of fish farms was one of the topics of this year’s ONS in Stavanger.
ONS is a global energy meeting point connecting international suppliers, operating companies and decision makers. Based on the recent challenges in the oil and gas industry, innovation and new business opportunities were the focus of this year’s event.
As a part of one of the ONS sessions, Ocean Aquafarms’ Technical Manager Torbjørn Eggebø, presented the Hex Box. He explained the concept and how the company, with experience from the oil industry and many years cooperation with Chinese CIMC Raffles, now also focuses on fish farming in harsh environments.
Through its owners, Ocean Aquafarms has a good track record of initiating and completing projects in China. Over the years more than USD 4 bn worth of projects have been developed here. Approximately 50 percent of this has been Norwegian deliveries.
There are several parallels between rigs and fish farms in terms of themes, e.g. safety, power solution, automation, ballasting and mooring.
The company’s venture had not been possible without strong industrial partners based on long-term relationships. For Ocean Aquafarms, both Chinese CIMC and Norwegian Kongsberg are important partners. CIMC has a strong marine fabrication expertise. Kongsberg is a best in class manufacturer of marine systems as well as world leading within the area of R&D.
CIMC Raffles and Ocean Aquafarms AS have already established close cooperation in the aquaculture field, and cooperation between the two companies has started. CIMC will do the basic and detailed design and production of the Hex Box, and have developed two types of the fish farm concept suitable for the Chinese sea and the local fish farming.
The industrial cooperation represents a win – win solution as it strengthen the bi-lateral trade between China and Norway.
Ocean Aquafarms has also teamed up with Bremnes Seashore, one of Norway’s best known farmed salmon producers with 28 production facilities in Norway. Bremnes exports salmon to selected European and Asian markets.
