Flatsetsund Engineering is delivering four FLS delousing lines to Murmansk, mounted on the Enabler One barge which FSV Group is supplying to Russian Aquaculture.
Russian Aquaculture started working with salmon in 2011 and today operates seven sites in the Murmansk region and accounts for over 80% of Russian sea-based salmon and trout farming production. The company has additional licences available for a long-term increase in production.
Feed and smolt are sourced from Norway. Russian Aquaculture currently has two wholly owned subsidiary smolt plants in Norway, and also plans to build up its own smolt production in Russia representing an annual production volume of around 15 million smolt.
The company has now invested in Norwegian delousing technology by purchasing the Enabler One barge from FSV Group. The barge was built for rental to Marine Harvest in 2014 with three FLS delousing lines. In 2015, a fourth line was installed. Enabler One has been leased to Mowi Region North. Flatsetsund Engineering has leased the debugger system and FSV Group has leased the fleet.
Following Russian Aquaculture’s acquisition of Enabler One in May, the barge has undergone a significant upgrade at Båt- og Oppdrettservice in Averøy. The barge’s four delousing lines have now been upgraded to the latest version of the FLS delousing.
“We’re very excited to be exporting our delousing technology for the first time,” said Kristian Lillerud of Flatsetsund Engineering. “It’s also exciting that our first export will be to Russia, and we firmly believe that this is not the last time our delousing technology will be sold abroad.”
For FSV Group’s services company, selling equipment – not least abroad – is a new experience. FSV Group has been responsible for the overall project management.
“This has been an exciting project for us, featuring excellent co-operation with Russian Aquaculture, Flatsetsund Engineering and Båt- og Oppdrettservice,” said Endre Brekstad, Technical Manager at FSV Group. “It’s good that Norway can supply technology and not just raw materials.”
Enabler One is expected to be operational by mid-September and Pure Shipping, which has two vessels with FLS delousing, has been responsible for training the Russian operators and is also responsible for testing the facility prior to delivery.
“We have been involved in dialogue with various delousing system suppliers for a couple of years,” said Arne Geirulv. “We have assessed this thoroughly based on both customer requirements and fish welfare. We decided against thermal debugging early on, so Flatsetsund Engineering and their FLS delousing was the obvious option. Then we looked at delousing vessels for sale and ended up purchasing Enabler One, our first investment in mechanical delousing.
“For us, investing in Norwegian technology is a natural choice. We also produce according to Norwegian methods when it comes to welfare and sustainability at all our sites. All this is self-imposed. In Russia, the industry is still in an early phase of development. This also means that there are no service companies or other local suppliers to call. That is why we have built up our own infrastructure and a competent workforce, allowing us to deal with everything in-house. We have both well boats for slaughtering and our own slaughterhouse. Now we will also have good capacity for mechanical delousing, where fish welfare is the top priority.”
