Vardø Vessel Traffic Service Centre

Vardø Vessel Traffic Service Centre (Norwegian: Vardø trafikksentral; call sign: NOR VTS), also known as Norwegian Oceanic Region Vessel Traffic Service, is a vessel traffic service situated in the town of Vardø in Vardø, Norway. It is responsible for monitoring ship traffic off the baseline of Norway throughout the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), including the areas around Jan Mayen and Svalbard. It has special responsibilities for the sealanes into Hammerfest and Sveagruva.

Proposals for a northerly VTS arose around 2000 and the plans approve din 2003. The station became operational on 1 January 2007 and was jointly located with Vardø Radio. It was issued the task of a new traffic separation scheme and the emergency tugboat service. Since 2010 NOR VTS has been able to monitor a larger area with through the AISSat satellite constellation, ultimately resulting in a ground station being built at Vardø. Since 2010 NOR VTS has coordinated Navarea XIX.

The background for establishing the center was the need to monitor offshore oil tanker traffic, mostly Russian, which runs along the coast of Norway. Russia and Norway cooperated in planning and training for oil spills in the Barents Sea since 1994. Proposals for a VTS covering the Norwegian and Barents Sea were around the turn of the millennium, initially intended to cover Northern Norway. The Coastal Administration proposed several possible locations as suitable, such as Honningsvåg, Lødingen, Reitan in Bodø, Tromsø and Vardø. Arguments for locating it in Vardø was the possibility for co-locating it with Vardø Radio. Lødning and Honningsvåg were proposed due to them hosting regional offices of the Coastal Administration.

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