Normarine Offshore

"The other big coup was a surprise package sold by the oil company Amoco. The oil giant had a subsidiary, Canadian Marine Drilling Ltd. (Canmar), in the Olympic city of Calgary. Now nearly ten years since the Olympic games, the city did not have the same pressure, and it was even longer since the oil boom marked the Canadian interior. Canmar was sitting with two drillships, a couple of drilling platforms, a handful of supply ships, and various other equipment. Normally, not many buyers want such a mixed bag, but the oil giant Amoco did not want the hassle of lengthy negotiations for one ship at a time. All or nothing, was the offer. And Fredriksen's rig broker, Stein H. Schie at Normarine Offshore, got the job. He played hard on Amoco's desire to get rid of the whole of Canmar and managed to get the price down to just over 100 million dollars. Then Schie did the job Amoco should have done: One by one, the assets were sold off. The supply ships and a dock brought in 50 million dollars. Thus, John Fredriksen had gotten back half of his money, and was left with the two drillships "Northern Explorer II" and "Northern Explorer III" for just 50 million dollars."

"The old feuds with former drinking buddies and friends were history, a new court was in place. At the forefront was none other than Little Wolf, Tor Olav Trøim, who was never far away. Just as loyal, and apparently always in the shipowner's favor, was Nordea's Calle Steen, the man who had conjured up a loan of one and a half billion during the banking crisis ten years earlier. Among brokers, many would like to be in the inner circle of the court, but undoubtedly, one finds the brokerage firm Platou there. They were the world's leading ship brokerage firm in the early 70s along with British Clarkson but fell to mediocrity in Norway. The contact with Fredriksen brought the firm back towards old heights and record results, thanks to the socially intelligent chief Peter Anker and the experienced broker Wilhelm Holst. In stocks, Fearnley and their Harald Moræus Hansen are never far away. They have been good at finding undervalued shipping stocks worldwide, especially in Asia. With the great interest in offshore, eventually Pareto entered the innermost circle, their Stein Schie being for many years John Fredriksen's court broker on the offshore sector when he worked at the company Normarine Offshore, and he brought the client into Pareto. Fredriksen still has some of his old friends, such as Petter Olsen and Petter Thorendal. But with limited time in Norway, it can only be sporadic contact; business and family take all the time. And after all, it has been twenty-five years since he moved from the country. Both geographical distance and tens of billions in economic distance tend to create distance."