Aker Stord: Norway's Largest Offshore Shipyard

Aker Stord, located south of Leirvik on the island of Stord, is Norway's largest industrial yard. It started in 1945 building small ships, was bought by Aker in 1956, and grew into one of Europe's major shipyards. Through the 1960s and early 1970s it built supertankers of up to 370,000 tonnes. When the tanker market collapsed in 1975, the yard pivoted to offshore oil and gas, constructing some of the largest production platforms ever put in the North Sea. At the centre of the 318,000 square metre facility stands Storen, Northern Europe's largest gantry crane: 115 metres tall, 153 metres wide, with a lifting capacity of 1,050 tonnes. The yard now also works on renewable energy projects. If you drive past and see something the size of a city block being assembled, that is a normal Tuesday here.