I.M. Skaugen or IMS is a shipping company that operates within petrochemical gases and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and lightering

Lightering

Lightering is the process of transferring cargo between vessels of different sizes, usually between a barge and a bulker or oil tanker. Lightering is undertaken to reduce a vessel's draft in order to enter port facilities which cannot accept very large ocean-going vessels...

 of crude oil and liquefied natural gas

Liquefied natural gas

Liquefied natural gas or LNG is natural gas that has been converted temporarily to liquid form for ease of storage or transport....

 (LNG). IMS is horizontal integrated

Horizontal integration

In microeconomics and strategic management, the term horizontal integration describes a type of ownership and control. It is a strategy used by a business or corporation that seeks to sell a type of product in numerous markets...

 and designs

Naval architecture

Naval architecture is an engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction, maintenance and operation of marine vessels and structures. Naval architecture involves basic and applied research, design, development, design evaluation and calculations during all stages of the life of a...

, builds, owns and operates its fleet of vessels. The company also owns Norgas and Skaugen PetroTrans.

History

The company dates back to 1916 when Isak Martinius Skaugen

Isak Martinius Skaugen

Isak Martinius Skaugen was a Norwegian businessperson.He was a sea captain by profession. In 1916 in Risør he founded the shipping company which still exists under the name I. M. Skaugen. His sons Sigurd, Brynjulf and Morits were taken on board as partners in 1952, and the brothers later...

 founded D/S-A/S Eikland. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Skaugen and Sven Salén

Sven Salén

Sven Gustaf Salén was a Swedish sailor who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics and in the 1952 Summer Olympics...

 founded the joint venture Salen-Skaugen Line that offered passenger and cargo liner

Cargo liner

A Cargo liner is a type of merchant ship which carried general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the nineteenth century, and eventually gave way to container ships and other more specialized carriers in the latter half of the twentieth...

 service from the United States East Coast to the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

. In the 1960s Skaugen entered the Norwegian Bulk Carrier Pool and during the 1970s the company co-founded Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. 1982 saw the founding of Norwegian Gas Carriers along with four other shipping companies. In 1988 the company sold its partial ownership in Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and bought the conglomerate Kosmos. 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...

 when it merged with Laboremus and Kosmos Shipping. The Kosmos shuttle tanker operation was at the same time spun off in Skaugen PetroTrans.