Crane ships begin raising Norwegian navy ship damaged by oil tanker

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Two crane ships early on Tuesday began raising a submerged Norwegian navy frigate which collided with an oil tanker in November and has remained stranded off Norway's west coast since, the armed forces said.

The accident injured eight people and caused the temporary closure of a North Sea crude export terminal, Norway's top gas processing plant and several offshore fields.

Raising the Helge Ingstad, one of Norway's five frigates, is expected to take five to six days and will require calm weather.

Anders Penna of the salvage company in charge of raising the Helge Ingstad said it is "very complex and demanding operation."

Penna said the plan is to put the frigate on a barge and transport it to a navy base where the damage will be assessed.

"The work must be synchronized, so the cranes must be completely stable, next to each other," Norway's armed forces said in a statement.

The armed forces have said they are evaluating whether it is possible to repair the 5,290-ton Helge Ingstad or whether they will need to order a replacement frigate.

(Cover: The Norwegian frigate "KNM Helge Ingstad" is seen partly under water in the sea near Bergen, western Norway, November 13, 2018.)

Source(s): Reuters