Incident with The Car Carrier Cougar Ace (No.4)

July 28, 2006

TOKYO - Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL, President: Akimitsu Ashida) announced that the MOL-operated car carrier Cougar Ace, disabled south of the Aleutian Islands on Monday, July 24, is floating stably although the vessel remains listed as before. The United States Coast Guard mentions in their home page that "There have been no sign of the vessel's fuel tanks losing containment at this time"

In order to secure cargo as soon as possible, MOL has arranged to dispatch a towing vessel from Seattle. In addition, a tugboat with a salvage engineer on board is to sail from Dutch Harbour, Alaska shortly to investigate the current situation and to make a concrete plan for Cougar Ace to regain stability and for being towed to a safe port which is yet to be decided.

Additionally, MOL continues to investigate the cause of the vessel listing by interviewing crew members. As previously reported the probable cause of the listing has been identified as instability which occurred during the ballast water adjustment process. MOL officials believe the listing was caused by discharging too much seawater from ballast tanks located in the bottom of the vessel. In the process of the adjustment work, the vessel rolled on the swell of the sea and suddenly listed.

MOL officials deeply regret this situation and apologize for any inconvenience this incident has caused to all parties concerned. Company officials wish to reiterate their gratitude to the United States Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard for their efforts to bring crew members safely to shore and their on-going efforts to monitor the vessel.