MOL Moves into OSV Field

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. today announced that it has teamed up with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and AKOFS Offshore AS to purchase the subsea support vessel Skandi Santos from the current shipowner through a three-way joint venture company called Avium Subsea ASand started the business effective on November 23.

Brazil’s national oil company, Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., has chartered the Skandi Santos from AKOFS since 2010, using it to install subsea facilities in deep-sea oil and gas fields off Brazil.

The project is MOL’s first step into the subsea business, where the company expects stable demand and steady earnings through the overall lifecycle of oil and gas projects—from survey of subsea oil and gas fields, to installation, inspection, maintenance, repair, and decommissioning of subsea facilities.

MOL has also agreed to examine opportunities to expand cooperative ties, based on a long-term perspective, with Mitsui & Co., AKOFS, and its parent company Akastor ASA (Akastor; CEO: Kristian Røkke; Headquarters: Norway).

The subsea support vessel business is a field in which MOL can make use of extensive experience gained over two decades of managing cable-laying vessels, and represents a new offshore business following its floating production, storage & offloading (FPSO) system, floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), and shuttle tankeroperations. MOL is pooling its individual strengths to promote and expand the subsea support vessel business, which requires advanced technologies.