2004
I.M. Skaugen consolidates its position as a market leader in gas carrier operations - through Norgas - and lightering operations - through SPT.

2003 Alliances and partners for growth
SPT, I.M. Skaugen’s ‘ship-to-ship transfer’ business joins forces with Teekay Shipping Corporation to jointly operate and expand its lightering activities.

Through Norgas, I.M. Skaugen forms a revenue sharing gas carrier pool with A.P. Møller-Mærsk, named MNGC, to benefit the performance of the Norgas fleet of gas carriers.

SPT signs a 10-year bareboat charter for six new Aframax tankers.

2000 Building for the future
I.M. Skaugen joins forces with GATX Capital of San Francisco to commission six new, specially-designed ethylene carriers, to be built in Shanghai, China.

1998-1999 Training for the future
I.M. Skaugen establishes training and recruiting centres as joint ventures with maritime universities in Wuhan, China and St. Petersburg, Russia.

1995-1996 New Horizons
I.M. Skaugen sets up marketing offices for Norgas in Singapore and Houston, and established itself in China. The major part of the Norgas fleet was shifted to Asia. In 1996, I.M. Skaugen entered into the first Sino-foreign joint shipping venture in China with the Hubei Tianfa Group to transport LPG on the Yangtze River.

SPT sells its own shuttle tanker fleet in 1996, preferring to operate its ship-to-ship transfer business with chartered tonnage.

1991-1995 The turnaround
The focus of I.M. Skaugen shifts from being a diversified investment company in marine assets to becoming a marine transportation service company.

The company retains the lightering (SPT) and the gas transportation assets (Norgas) as a base for its core business activities - with an aim to build SPT and Norgas (then NGC) into strong brand names, focused on safety as well as low-cost operations.

1990 A new beginning
The ‘new’ I.M. Skaugen is established and lists on the Oslo Stock Exchange after a merger of the Skaugen privately-owned shipping business with the publicly-held business of Laboremus (established in 1910) and Kosmos Shipping AS (established in 1912).

1972-1990
I.M. Skaugen branches out into the oil industry with a drilling rig and four supply vessels, initially off the Canadian Labrador coast and later the Sakhalin fields in the Soviet Far East.

The company collaborates with three firms to form Viking Car Carriers, which operates successfully into the 1980s. Norwegian Gas Carriers (now Norgas) is established in 1982 as the chartering and marketing entity for a pool of 20 LPG carriers, belonging to five owners.

1960-1988
In the 1960s the company pioneers the bulk shipment of cement and co-founds the Norwegian Bulk Carrier pool. In the late 1960s, the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line was started in partnership with Gotaas Larsen and Anders Wilhelmsen and in the 1980s, Pearl Cruises starts along with J. Lauritzen.

1949-1958
Skaugum is converted and fitted out to carry 1,800 refugees and 200 crew to the USA, Canada and Australia. Joined in 1950 by Skaubryn, a total of 170,000 refugees are carried to Australia by I.M. Skaugen in five years.

1929-1945
By the outbreak of World War II, Captain Skaugen had three diesel-powered oil tankers and a cargo liner. In 1940, the exiled Norwegian Government requisitions the fleet for the duration of the war.

1916-1929
Isak Martinius Skaugen, Captain of the four-masted barque, Alcides, founds the company, D/S-A/S Eikland.

Alcides was later sold and replaced by the steam ship, Eikland, which together with two more steam ships was employed in the North European tramp trade.


A brochure outlining the full history of I.M. Skaugen is available on request.