Electricity, Fuel and Cooking Gas

Electricity

In Norway, as in the UK and in Europe, electric power is 230 V, 50 Hz. Sockets do come in three types:

UK/European-style 16 A three pin outdoor and marine plug – most common.
Round two-pin European-style household-type plug – less common as being replaced with three-pin 16 A plug.
Larger UK/European-style 32 A three-pin outdoor and marine plug – very rare.

A long lead will come in handy to access centrally-located electrical panels.

If you come across one of the increasingly rare two-pin plugs on a dock (e.g. in Barentsburg, Svalbard, Volume 4), be aware that there is no way to determine correct polarity – potentially a very dangerous situation for a boat with a grounded neutral wire.

110-Volt Boats

If your boat runs on 110 V in addition to an adapter to fit the above mentioned plug styles, it also requires a transformer to convert 230 V shore power to 110 V ship’s power. A transformer will allow to run many 110 V appliances, but remember that it won’t change the frequency to the North-American 60 Hz. This means that any equipment with a motor that is not made to handle 50 Hz will overheat and take damage.

Fuel

Diesel

Diesel for boats is exempt from the road tax applied to diesel for automobiles and a green dye is added to differentiate it. With all other taxes added to the cost (CO2, NOX, mineral oil…) it is still about 20 – 25% cheaper than ordinary road-tax diesel. Many automotive petrol stations also sell tax free green diesel for trucks (avgiftfri diesel) which is allowed to be used for boats too.

All diesel sold to the marine market has 6 – 7 % biofuel (FAME) added. HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) is available at a few locations on the southeast and west coasts, but readily available at roadside petrol stations. In the north Bunker Oil will sell you HVO from truck but you may need to order >2 000 litres.

Many marine diesel fuel points (on wharves, pontoons, in marinas) are unattended and have a credit card-activated fuel pump. Though some of these credit card machines don’t take foreign credit cards, this is changing rapidly throughout Norway and most now do.

Larger harbours will usually have a bunkering facility for ships and will often have a pontoon as well for smaller boats. If there is no pontoon, it will probably be necessary to fuel at high water in order to deal with the large quay.

Another option is to have fuel delivered by truck, but often these trucks only have large nozzles and don’t like to deal in small amounts of fuel.

The motto here is never miss an opportunity to fuel when it’s relatively easy!

Petrol / Gasoline

Petrol is readily available in the summer season on the south and west coasts where large outboard engines are the norm. For the rest of the coast you may have to carry jerry cans from the nearest petrol station.

Cooking Gas

Propane (Liquefied Petroleum Gas – LPG)

Unfortunately, there has been little standardisation of gas cylinders and regulators between Scandinavia, Europe and North America or even, for that matter, among the Scandinavian countries.

See Chapter The Norwegian Propane System.

There are two large suppliers of propane to the Norwegian market: AGA and Nippon. These companies only deal with standard cylinders and the consumer market is served on an exchange basis. The cylinders are then refilled in large automated plants. They will not accept foreign cylinders.

However, LPG Norge has developed a chain of propane filling stations for automobiles where you can get some foreign bottles filled. The cylinder will need to be within 10 years of latest certification and be marked as suitable for propane. They will not fill butane bottles. Because the emphasis has been on propane for automobiles, the locations of the filling stations are not always that handy for boats. Although they claim to have adapters to fit most cylinders, it would be worthwhile carrying an adapter which you know will fit your cylinder.

Map of LPG Norge filling stations.

Another facility that may fill foreign propane tanks is VestGass at Straumane, north of Bergen.

In general, it is not straight forward to fill foreign cylinders in most places in Norway. There are ways to get around the problem:

You can carry enough propane (or butane) to last the time you will be in Norway;
You can modify the boat’s system with a Norwegian regulator to use Norwegian bottles;
We are told you can purchase a Norwegian industrial-type bottle and use it directly on some existing systems. We understand that this may work even with North American-type threads, as they supposedly are the same, but we have not tried it. Make sure you carefully leak test this solution. Unfortunately, you can’t sell the bottle back when leaving Norway;
It is possible to decant propane, using a short hose with Norwegian fitting on one end and the fitting for the boat’s cylinder on the other. While an established practice among long distance cruisers it is not a method we would recommend.

Butane

In Norway, butane (Campingaz®) is available only in small disposable canisters for camp cookers, grills etc. If you rely on butane it will be best to carry enough butane to last the time you will be in Norway.

Paraffin

Paraffin used to be readily available on the Norwegian coast but is now harder to source after heating of homes with mineral oil was banned in 2020. Paraffin comes in varying degrees of refinement at extremely variable prices:

Parafin used for heating appliances in cabins and houses without electricity may still be available from pumps at some petrol stations in larger cities and from the Bunker Oil outlets along the coast – bring your own cans. This paraffin has a slightly pungent odour and is the cheapest option (other than jetfuel).
Fritidsparafin has had some of the smellier substances removed and is available from petrol stations and chandleries in 2.5 or 4-litre jugs.
Lampeparafin / Lampeolje has a waxing substance added and is primarily intended for wick-burning appliances. It will work in your burner but at the risk of premature clogging of the nozzle. It is expensive and usually only sold in 1-litre bottles.

Methylated Spirits

In Norway, methylated spirits (denatured alcohol) is sold under the name rødspirit or, for a slightly less smelly alternative, Fin Fyr. Although available all around the coast, dealers are subject to strict legislation concerning its storage, making it hard to source in some locations. In some towns it is most easily found in 1-litre bottles in paint shops. If you are doing all your cooking on methylated spirits it would be wise to stock up at a supplier offering 2.5- or 5-litre containers when you can find these.