The first consignment of 12,000 tonnes of butane is ready for lifting from Statoil's Vestprosess facility at Mongstad near Bergen.
This cargo is being loaded by Luxembourg-registered Flanders Gloria, one of the largest liquefied petroleum gas carriers in the market.
The rest of the vessel's 43,000-tonne capacity will be filled at Statoil's Kårstø gas treatment plant north of Stavanger.
Customers in southern Europe are due to receive the butane for filling cylinders which will be sold to households.
Flanders Gloria is scheduled to depart from the Mongstad jetty in the course of 10 February, reports Bjørn Vidar Dale, manager for the offsite facilities at Mongstad.
As part of the Vestprosess development, Statoil excavated two rock cavern stores of 60,000 cubic metres each for propane and butane at Mongstad.