Furetank wins the Equinor Working Safely With Suppliers Award 2024, for top safety performance in a very demanding North Atlantic trade and for taking a leap forward in the commitment to sustainability.
The winner was announced in a ceremony in Stavanger on Tuesday. Every year, Equinor performs an extensive evaluation of suppliers with regards to safety standards, performance, inspection records, results from consecutive office audits, learning from incidents, operational performance and transparency in communication and collaboration.
The reasoning behind the appointment was Furetank having ”taken a leap forward in the commitment to sustainability and demonstrated proactive involvement in driving the industry towards a greener future. They are well suited to meet the growing European demand for products, biofuels and renewable feedstocks. They have been a very positive partner for our teams, reliable, easy to work with and they have a very high commitment for safety, efficiency and emission reduction.”
Very challenging trade
Furetank VINGA vessels have been time chartered by Equinor for almost five years in the very demanding trade between Norway and Iceland.
– This is for us a highly valued recognition of the performance of our vessels in one of the world’s most exposed areas to harsh weather and winds. We designed the vessel series with robust technical systems intended to function every day at sea, with redundancies in place in case something happens. Today we see that our efforts have paid off,” said Furetank Chairman of the Board, Lars Höglund.
He was in Stavanger to receive the award together with newly appointed Furetank CEO Björn Stignor, who expressed both pride in the past and optimism for the future.
– The award points to the qualities that I have personally watched Furetank develop during a long time, which attracted me to the company in the first place. It is a privilege to join a company with high ambitions stretching far beyond internal gains. I am happy to take over and carry on this flag going forward, Björn stignor said.
Skilled and dedicated crew
A successful charter operation is about much more than innovative and robust technology. Several crews have performed their duties in challenging conditions on rough seas, 365 days of the year.
– We receive the award as a sign of appreciation for our crews and their handling of difficult situations, as well as their communication with the customer. But we also want to send a warm thank you to our Equinor counterparts on the coast of Norway, who face wind and rain on their way to work and thus have a great understanding of the conditions we work under, Lars Höglund said.
Ann-Elisabeth Serck Hanssen, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Supply at Equinor, held the award speech.
– We see that Furetank are ready to take on a future low-carbon fuel alternative business growth, which we really believe is coming. So I am very pleased and proud to share that this year’s award is given to Furetank, she said.
