A comfortable home in the harshest conditions

Every major infrastructure project has its challenges, but in the harsh Arctic environment of a Norwegian gas refinery, those challenges are multiplied. Jim Banks speaks with Endre Sørstrømmen of Stord Innkvartering and kitchen equipment partner Metos how they successfully housed and fed a large workforce in the toughest condition. 

The Arctic city of Hammerfest in northern Norway, perched on the coastline of Norway's Finnmark County, holds a dramatic and remote position. Often cited as the world’s northernmost city, it also encompasses the tiny island of Melkøya, which is home to an onshore LNG plant that receives natural gas from the Snøhvit gas and condensate field via a pipeline running beneath the Barents Sea. 

Operated by Equinor, Norway’s national oil company, the refinery was closed for 80 days from the start of April 2025 to carry out essential maintenance and extensive electrification work. Supporting this project meant accommodating up to 1,000 workers on site, each of whom needed to be housed comfortably and fed consistently, regardless of the weather. This is no small feat, given the isolation and harsh cold of the environment. But for Stord Innkvartering, it is just another day at the office.

The company specializes in providing temporary modular buildings and constructing workforce accommodation camps for large-scale infrastructure and industrial projects across Norway. 

Unlocking spaces 

“We help our customers scale their opportunities by unlocking space that helps their workforce to get the rest they need after a full day at work,” says Endre Sørstrømmen, Stord’s managing director. 

“Essentially, we deliver a temporary home away from home – providing convenience, recovery, and community. We can deliver modules for the clients, or we can provide all of the services needed to run the worker community. We can help our customers to manage their entire project by handling municipality contacts and approvals, setting up everything needed to deliver a hotel-like solution for the workers. Or, if the customer wishes, just deliver the modules where they're needed," he says.

"The beauty of modular building solutions is flexibility and scalability. With a standardized module fleet and experience to manage complex and big projects, we can set up a suitable solution and adjust it quickly by adding more space if needed,” he adds. 

The Hammerfest camp project, concieved in summer 2024, brought its own set of planning hurdles. The proposed site presented challenges, including pollution and land use restrictions related to surrounding development. Once local approvals were secured, Stord got to work by constructing and transporting housing and canteen modules to the remote site during the harsh conditions of an Arctic winter. “There are only six hours of daylight in January,” Sørstrømmen explains. 

“We had to deal with everything the Arctic can throw at us – the wind, the cold and the snow – to deliver 10,000 square meters of accommodation. This included a huge canteen, probably one of the biggest ever made, capable of feeding 1,000 people several meals each day.” 

To deliver consistent, high-quality food service for the worker community, Stord partnered with Metos, a leading kitchen equipment supplier. Metos provides the essential components of the canteen modules and sources critical equipment from across Ali Group’s portfolio. That includes Metos’ Viking cooking kettles, Metos’ iCombi Classic steamers, Wexiödisk dishwashers, KROMO pot washers, Metos Prince bratt pans, and Metos Nova/Halo display units. Everything except cold storage falls under Metos’ scope. 

The first thing Metos does on any project is get to know the space and how many modules it will need, says Geir Aas, project manager at Metos.

“We can create kitchens to serve anything from 100 to 1,000 people, so we need to know the number of modules in the camp. Camps can be up in the mountains far from any grocery stores, so we need to think carefully about storage, too,” he adds. “For 1,000 people, as at Hammerfest, we’ll have maybe 250 seats and run three or four sittings, so we need to plan well to use the equipment efficiently, as well as providing variety and nutrition.” 
 

Effective partnership is emphasized in extreme conditions

Stord’s ability to execute large, complex projects combined with Metos' expertise and strengths in large-scale canteen solutions, formed a partnership built on quality and proven performance.

“Being able to deliver quickly, wherever we’re working in Norway, is very important. That means relying on Metos to provide quick service during the project, through its connection with partners across the country,” says Sørstrømmen. “We deliver wherever our clients need us, and we need to make it as smooth as possible no matter where it is, even if there are no roads to the site and we have to go by boat. We take on the challenge and Metos has to be part of that. 

The results of this strong and effective partnership are clear, despite the extreme demands of the Hammerfest project and the risks of delivering a second-rate solution. “If the canteen and living environmentsare not up to standard then the mood of workers can drop, and that can affect the project,” says Sørstrømmen. “That mood can spread quickly and it’s hard to turn around.” 

Liv Haugen, sales executive at Metos, explains how the company has adapted to demand. “Activity in the north of Norway has evolved, so we've developed more support providers there, as it’s hard to drive around all of the fjords,” she says. “Much more is happening in the north now, and when people work on these big infrastructure projects they need places to eat and sleep. This is a big part of the foodservice industry that’s often forgotten.”

If they can make it work in Hammerfest, Stord Innkvartering and Metos can make it work anywhere.