The northern city of Tromsø was celebrating after industrial firm Aker Solutions chose what it called “The Tromsø Solution” for its Arctic base of operations. The company’s new engineering office for offshore activity in the northern areas may employ as many as 300 persons within five years.
Tromsø was chosen over such rival locations as Hammerfest and Harstad because of its transportation accessibility, its university and, not least, because Aker Solutions believes more of its future employees would rather live in Tromsø than smaller northern cities.
“We have clever people, good education, a high quality of life, fantastic nature and a rich cultural offering,” Mayor Jens Johan Hjort of the Conservative Party told newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN).
Aker Solutions is a major offshore contractor in the Far North and expects rapid growth as oil and gas fields at Skrugard, Norvarg and Shtokman are developed. Potential for new oil and gas discoveries is also high, following the settlement of territorial borders between Norway and Russia last year.
“We have great faith in the potential of the Norwegian continental shelf and in the Arctic,” Aker Solutions chief executive Øyvind Eriksen said at a press conference late last week. He said Tromsø would be the company’s “new center for competence, technology and power in the Arctic.”
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