NAVTOR Gets Global ENC Coverage (Norway)

NAVTOR today announced that it has signed a distribution agreement with the UKHO (United Kingdom Hydrographic Office) for the supply of the Admiralty Vector Chart Service for the global professional maritime market.

NAVTOR will also offer the total package of Admiralty Digital Publications as a part of the agreement.

“NAVTOR employees have extensive experience in serving the maritime market with electronic charts and understand that, in the future, ENCs will be the only option for the shipping industry to meet the requirement of using authorized electronic charts,” says NAVTOR Managing Director Tor A. Svanes. And he is in a very good position to make this comment – Mr. Svanes was very influential in the development of ECDIS and ENCs within the maritime industry and was the founder of C-MAP Norway. “When we launched our innovative ENC service in the first quarter of 2012, it was a major contributor to the simplification of ordering, licensing, updating and, importantly, administration of the ENC chart portfolio. Up to now, the market has been slow to begin to use ENCs, primarily due to today’s cumbersome solutions. However, as soon as we had proved how easy the ENCs were for the navigators to handle, we experienced a swift uptake of our service. Once the mandatory use of ECDIS comes into force during the coming years, I am sure that NAVTOR´s services will be a valuable solution for navigators on the bridge.”

He continues: “With the latest achievement of being awarded a distribution agreement with the UKHO we are in the position to serve the international market with the well-recognized Admiralty branded products and services. This is a milestone for NAVTOR and we are well on our way to offering global ENC coverage to the shipping industry in a seamless ENC service”.

The ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) will be the central navigation console aboard ships once the IMO mandate comes into force during the period from 2012 to 2018. ECDIS manufacturers, data and information providers will meet the growing demand from the maritime industry to supply equipment and navigational data. NAVTOR will be joining forces with the major players to jointly develop and supply a fully-automated, cost-effective and user-friendly electronic maritime navigation service.

“Being able to cooperate with the UKHO and jointly serve the shipping industry with state of the art solutions will be a major contribution to the fulfillment of the e-navigation concept; to enhance berth to berth navigation and related services for safety and security at sea and protection of the marine environment,” concludes Mr. Svanes.

About NAVTOR

With its head office in Egersund, NAVTOR has a team of personnel with extensive experience in the development, marketing, sales and support of official electronic charts and navigational information services for the professional maritime market. NAVTOR has a subsidiary in St. Petersburg manned by experienced technical experts specialized in the field of ECDIS kernels and maritime software development.

About Smedvig

The Norwegian naval captain Peder Smedvig founded a shipping company in Stavanger in 1915, which over the first half of last century became one of the larger ship owners in Norway. When oil was discovered in the North Sea, the company moved in 1960s into the offshore oil industry with investments in supply ships, oil tankers and in 1973 built the first Norwegian owned drilling rig “West Venture”. The company acquired multiple rigs throughout the 1970s and 1980s and took the drilling company public in 1990. Smedvig ASA was sold in January 2006, and today Smedvig Family Office is an international investment company with interest in multiple asset classes. Smedvig still remains in Stavanger with its main office and with the establishment of NAVTOR the company has reentered the shipping industry.

About UKHO

The UKHO produces a worldwide series of some 3,300 paper nautical charts, 160 publications under the Admiralty brand and has a growing portfolio of Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs). These charts are sold globally and used by nearly 70% of international shipping.

The Admiralty Vector Chart Service brings together Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) from national hydrographic offices around the world and new ENC coverage produced by UKHO in

co-operation with Foreign Governments to provide comprehensive, official, worldwide coverage.