Farstad Shipping is a supply shipping company based in Ålesund

Ålesund

is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre, and the center of the Ålesund Region. It is a sea port, and is noted for its unique concentration of Art Nouveau architecture....

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. It operates 58 supply vessels. The company is owned 46% by the Farstad family.

History

The company dates back to 1956 when it started with tankers

Tanker (ship)

A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier.-Background:...

 and bulk carrier

Bulk carrier

A bulk carrier, bulk freighter, or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, and cement in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, economic forces have fueled the development of these ships,...

s. In 1973 the first offshore supply vessel was ordered followed by the acquisition of the Wilhelmsen

Wilhelmsen Lines

Wilh. Wilhelmsen Holding ASA is a global maritime industry group, headquartered in Lysaker, Norway. The group employs approximately 16,000 people and has operations in 73 nations....

 fleet in 1986. Two years later the company was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange

Oslo Stock Exchange

The Oslo Stock Exchange serves as the main market for trading in the shares of Norwegian companies. It opens at 9:00am and closes 5:30pm local time...

 and in 1989 it bought Seaforth Maritime.