Extreme cold. Complete isolation. Floating ice. The Arctic is not a place for the unprepared. And as the offshore industry’s focus on the region intensifies, the spoils will go to those who can cope with the difficulties. The offshore-services and ice-management company Viking Supply Ships is taking this challenge seriously.

Knowledge Sharing

When it comes to Arctic operations, experienced crews remain a most rare and precious commodity. Viking Supply Ships has an uncommon method of ensuring they have the knowledge they need: they employ the Swedish Maritime Administration’s icebreaking crews during the summer months to assist in their ice management operations. It is a knowledge-sharing arrangement that benefits both parties. Viking learns from the icebreaking crews’ Arctic experience, and the icebreaking crews, in addition to being utilized year-round, gain more experience working in Offshore. It’s a win-win situation.

Icebreaking Trials

Viking Supply’s latest build, the Brage Viking, is a 1-A ice class AHTS vessel meant to bridge the gap between icebreakers and regular AHTS vessels. With its bulbous bow, the ship offers better efficiency in open water, but is somewhat unconventional in design for a vessel intended to perform ice operations. That’s why, before sending Brage Viking out into the Arctic for the first time, Viking Supply conducted a series of full-scale icebreaking trials in the Baltic Sea. The purpose was twofold: to verify Brage Viking’s capabilities, and to prepare the crew for the challenges that lay ahead.