History
Our history
Seabrokers was established in 1982 when fishing vessels and older supply ships were converted into offshore support vessels for the oil and gas industry.
With the expertise and power of the parent company and successful sister companies, this company has the support it needs to achieve ambitious and resilient goals.
Purchase of Koppholen 23, which was an empty building over five floors with a total of approx. 7500 m². An aggressive investment despite some difficult years for the office market at Forus.
Seabrokers and SANY are expanding their cooperation in renewable energy with the investment in wind power in Europe and Norway.
Seabrokers Innovation is established for innovation and entrepreneurship.
New construction at Bamble and Seabroker’s first construction project outside Rogaland. The property serves as a base for Seabroker’s Foundation East department.
Seabrokers Foundation strengthens its investment in energy wells through the establishment of Seabrokers GeoEnergy. Simultaneously buys equipment and crew from Østlandet Brønn and Energiboring
Seabrokers Foundation is expanding its portfolio by focusing on jet piling and horizontal drilling.
Establishes Seabrokers Dolomiti AS together with Italian Dolomiti Rocce, and quickly establishes itself in the market as a reliable supplier. Seabrokers Foundation starts with KC bearing. Buys the foundation business of Consto Dambygg.
Purchase of Shell’s head office in Tankveien 1. 17,000 m² office building on 66 acres of land with ambitions to develop the property further.
In the same year, Seabrokers Chartering buys the majority of shares in Skagen Ship Consulting. A company that builds and hires ships for the aquaculture industry.
Completion of the new building Vestre Svanholmen 5. Combination building in the center of Forus.
Establishment of new tenancies and a co-working environment in Vestre Svanholmen 12.
The building was turned from an empty single-use building to a full multi-use building in a year’s time in a demanding market.
Vår Energi is moving out of Vestre Svanholmen 12 and taking over more than twice the area in Vestre Svanholmen 1 after Equinor moved out. The building is the subject of major rehabilitation/adaptation to adapt to Vår Energi’s existing and future needs.
In the same year, Seabroker’s Seaportal is launched, which is used as a portal that makes it easy to evaluate technical and commercial aspects when purchasing vessels.
Seabrokers Property establishes Langholmen Egersund in collaboration with Bertelsen & Garpestad. Starts immediately with completion and plans for new construction.
In 2017, Seabrokers took the initiative to test out autonomous buses as part of the public transport solutions at Forus and established Forus PRT, which together with Kolumbus and Forus business park carried out Norway’s first trial of autonomous buses on the road.
In the same year, Seabrokers Foundation took over the part of TS Stangeland which was aimed at a foundation. The company went from 50 to 70 employees. Seabrokers Kran & transport was then sold to TS.
Oceaneering built in Vestre Svanholmen is handed over. Seabrokers Property thus owns over 210,000 m² of commercial property.
Seabrokers Foundation buys Holt Risa A/S, and with it established a department in the east. We then went from 25 to 50 employees.
Start of construction of Vestre Svanholmen 24, the Oceaneering building of 42,000 m². The building is specially adapted to Oceaneering, which during the construction period extends the lease to 20 years.
In the same year, Seabrokers Kran og Transport (later Seabrokers Havnekraner and now Heavy Machinery) was spun off as a separate company. Seabrokers Kran og Transport was a significant player in the region in the crane industry until 2017, when the crane and transport part were sold and we kept the harbor crane portfolio with several harbor cranes.
The company is today a solid and versatile supplier of cranes, construction and material handling machines in Norway. With harbor cranes from Hammerfest in the north to Stavanger in the south, we are represented over large parts of the Norwegian coast.
Seabrokers Heavy Machinery currently has the agency for SANY’s excavators, trucks and cranes.
Comfort Hotel Square in Stavanger was voted Norway’s trendiest hotel. The hotel was built and developed by Seabrokers Property in collaboration with the Choice chain and Base Properties and a whole 5 floors of parking garage had to be piled through for good and solid foundation work.
Handover of 6,700 m² hotel to Choice, Comfort Hotel Square in Stavanger.
Seabrokers Property has bought a 50% stake in the property Langholmen in Eigersund municipality.
Start of construction for a 6,700 m² hotel in Løkkeveien 41 in Stavanger with the Choice chain as tenant.
New office for Seabrokers Aberdeen was ready for occupancy.
Seabrokers Property’s largest office building to date is handed over to StatoilHydro at Vassbotnen 23, with 36,000 m² of office space ready for 1,650 employees.
Later that year, an 8,000 m² car park in Vestre Svanholmen was handed over on 8.
Another handover of a 19,000 m² new building in Vestre Svanholmen 4. The building will become a landmark with its very special architectural design. Tenants are Sandnes Sparebank, Awilco, COSL and PGNiG.
In addition, a 32,000 m² office building is being started in Vestre Svanholmen 1. The building is being started optimistically without tenants and is currently fully let to Vår Energi.
In April this year, Eni Norge will move into a newly constructed and beautiful building of 12,700 m² in Vestre Svanholmen 12.
Vestre Svanholmen 6 was completed in August and with its 11,000 m² the building was divided between Gaz de France, Cyviz, Wilberg and Ocean Rig.
Seabrokers Property completes the first building on the Forustomten, Vestre Svanholmen 14 for Vetco Aibel.
Seabrokers Entreprenør Service is established to initially secure own foundation needs at Forus. However, it would turn out that around 50% of the company’s capacity in the first year was used externally. The need for their services proved to be great from day one.
The company today has the name Seabrokers Foundation and is now a nationwide company that supplies everything within foundations. Seabrokers Foundation has branches in Stavanger, Skien and Bergen and is now the largest company in the Seabrokers Group.
Seabrokers buys a plot of 208 acres in the heart of Forus. With this purchase, Seabrokers owns a total of approximately 250 acres of land. The new site was unregulated and involved a large and long-term investment. In the period after 2004, Seabrokers has built a total of over 200,000 m² of commercial property on Forus.
In the same year, Seabrokers Services was established to ensure high quality in the operation of Seabrokers Eiendom’s buildings. Seabrokers Services is today a total supplier of operating and management services for over 300,000 m² of commercial buildings, both for Seabrokers-owned buildings and for other building owners. The company is today one of the largest companies in the Seabrokers Group.
In 2003, the company Sea Surveillance was established. The company aimed to provide innovative high-tech software and hardware products made with the highest professional standards in mind.
Sea Surveillance’s main business is software and integrated solutions for both offshore and land-based applications. In 2005, the company developed data tracking systems which were delivered to the company Furuno for use on inland coast guard vessels of the armed forces.
The Ex(p) system for the Kvitebjørn platform was delivered in 2006, and in the same year the company was awarded a contract for radar and Ai’s bridge system for Aker Barents and Aker Spitsbergen.
Seabrokers Inc. was established in Houston Texas, USA.
Seabrokers bought the office building at Vassbotn 23, which was later expanded to triple the size.
Seabrokers entered into a cooperation agreement with Maretec Consulting Ltd to offer shipbroking and consulting services to customers in Greenland.
Through the Seabrokers company Promarine and ASCO, a marine department was established in Peterhead and Aberdeen to serve 15 oil companies and today has operations with harbor cranes in Peterhead.
Our first new building “Seabrokers House” is being completed at Forusbeen 78 and Seabrokers is moving into the 5th floor of its new head office.
In the same year, Seabrokers established a brokerage house in Brazil which today supplies shipbroking services to oil companies, service companies and shipping companies.
5 year contract for the Provision of Exclusive Shipbroking Services and General Marine Services was entered into between Aberdeen Service Company Limited (ASCO) and Seabrokers AS on the 1st of January 1998.
Seabrokers established Maritime IT (MIT) which developed the world’s first tracking system for ships. The first systems were installed on board Norwegian supply ships. This meant that the logistics staff at the bases could follow the vessel’s whereabouts at all times, which the shipping companies did not like.
However, this quickly became a standard, when Statoil, as the first user, installed the system in its new emergency room in Bergen. All ships that were to work for Statoil had to have this system on board. Promarine AS, a company that was bought from ASCO UK and which continued to carry out maritime operations for ASCO, was part of the group until 2004.
Seabrokers expanded the portfolio again and bought Stavanger Chartering, a bulk & tank broker company in Stavanger.
Seabrokers was awarded a 12-year supply boat contract in the North Sea, which is the longest fixed T/C contract to date.
Seabrokers and ASCO started ASCO Norway in 1995 for base and port logistics, after which Seabrokers was media in ASCO Norway until 2007.
The Seabrokers Aberdeen office was established because Seabrokers wanted to work directly with oil companies and shipping companies in Scotland.
Good cooperation quickly developed and the first contracts were put in place shortly after the establishment.
After seven years, approximately 45% of the supply/standby market in the UK sector was handled by brokerage Seabrokers Aberdeen. Aberdeen currently has several companies as exclusive brokers.
Seabrokers enters property for the first time, and buys the 3rd floor of Forusbeen 80, which then became the company’s head office. Later, the company buys the second floor, which entered into a lease agreement with Sola reisebyrå, which is today Expedia.
Eventually, Seabrokers bought all of Forusbeen 80, and the accompanying plot of land where Seabrokers House was later built.
A very demanding situation arose when Saga Petroleum on block 2/4 got too high a pressure in the well. Seabrokers was heavily involved in procuring sufficient rigs and vessels, which were involved in the work to gain control of the well’s pressure.
A JU rig was first of all engaged to drill a relief well, then a housing rig. In addition, we had a total of 13 ships on T/C for about 12 – 13 months, to get the well under control. The well killers from the USA were called and finally got the well under control.
Technology development continues at Seabrokers and the company was involved in the development of fast vanjet boats for the evacuation and training of crews.
Seabrokers increases its market share considerably and enters into contracts with, among others, Norsk Hydro, BP Norge, Saga Petroleum, Statoil, Phillips, Shell, Elf, Esso and Conoco.
Through the company’s development of new technology and design, new multipurpose standby/rescue vessels are delivered, which resulted in a contract for new construction.
The anchor handling vessel M/S Gullbas was built to service the Gullfaks field and was the first anchor handling vessel with installed azimuth trusts in the bow. When the ship was in standby service, it could only be powered by this one 1,500 HP truster, thus saving tons of diesel every day.
In 1984, Seabrokers entered the market for supply boats and started rebuilding old tonnage. Sales and purchases, remodeling and new construction gradually became a significant part of the portfolio.
The image is from Rollanes, later Grampian Star. The boat was rebuilt in 1984 and still sails in Africa under the name DP Star.
In 1983, Seabrokers took the initiative to establish a joint sailing pool, “Sea Rescue AS”. This pool initially consisted of 8 converted standby/rescue ships from various shipping companies along the entire Norwegian coast.
The ships, (which were newer fishing boats and older supply ships) had been in storage, and Seabrokers had them converted and put to work for the oil companies. The fishing boats of more recent date received approx. 5 million in subsidies from the state, in order for them to be taken out of the fishery, as there was overfishing.
Supply ships, which were among the first to be built for Norwegian shipping companies, were all built in the Netherlands, in the early 70s for 12 and 14 million respectively. Some of them were converted for double the original cost price.
The fleet expanded rapidly – to 18 vessels in 1984, all of which were awarded longer contracts. Several of these converted vessels are still in service.
Seabrokers AS was established in Stavanger on October 11, 1982, and made its first long-term agreement with BP in November of the same year.
In Seabrokers Group, we emphasize teamwork and knowledge sharing across industries and companies.
To see solutions for the benefit of the market, if necessary, with radical measures, became the characteristic of Seabrokers. Now, 40 years later, we can look back at many ambitious and audacious visions that have been well and truly realized.
The management team consists of the daily managers of the companies in the group, creating greater synergies and collaboration across industries.
Seabrokers was established in 1982 when fishing vessels and older supply ships were converted into offshore support vessels for the oil and gas industry.
We are available to answer any questions regarding Seabrokers Group and our companies.
As an employee at Seabrokers, you have the opportunity to become part of an international company.
Seabrokers Group consists of over 200 dedicated employees in Norway, United Kingdom and Brazil. Here are some of our employees.
Seabrokers Group is committed to contributing to positive social initiatives.