This represents significant delays for the two ferries, which were originally scheduled to enter service on 1 October 2025.

“The project has been significantly delayed, and we look forward to bringing the new ferries into service. The plan for the summer is set: we will put the first vessel into service on biofuel and carry out testing and commissioning with hydrogen once the peak season is over,” Torghatten’s Technical Director Eirik Olsen said in a press release.

According to Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, the delays are partly due to a parallel delay at the plant that will produce the green hydrogen used to power the ferries through fuel cells. Supplier GreenH, which will produce the hydrogen locally in Bodø, the mainland port for the new ferries’ Lofoten service, told NRK that the plant would be ready by summer 2027.

The plant’s delays are partly attributable to longer-than-expected lead times for certain key components and delays in obtaining some of the necessary approvals, NRK reports.

Norwegian shipyard Myklebust Verft holds the contract to build the 120-metre long MOSKENES and RØST. The hulls are being built at Cemre Shipyard in Türkiye, which has faced prolonged production challenges, also resulting in delays to newbuilding projects for operators including Molslinjen and Scandlines. The two new ferries will operate between Bodø and Lofoten on Norway’s longest and most weather-exposed domestic ferry route.

Read also: New renderings of groundbreaking hydrogen newbuilding project 

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