MOL Moves into Offshore Vessel Support Field
- Aiming to Expand Offshore Business Following FPSO, FSRU, and Shuttle Tanker -

TOKYO-Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Junichiro Ikeda) today announced that it has teamed up with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui & Co.; President and CEO: Tatsuo Yasunaga; Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), and AKOFS Offshore AS (AKOFS; President & CEO: Geir Sjøberg; Headquarters: Norway) to purchase the subsea support vessel Skandi Santos from the current shipowner through a three-way joint venture company called Avium Subsea AS and 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 (*1), floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) (*2), and shuttle tanker (*3) operations. MOL is pooling its individual strengths to promote and expand the subsea support vessel business, which requires advanced technologies.

[ Outline of JV Avium Subsea AS ]

[ Outline of AKOFS ]

(*1) For details on the FPSO system, please refer to "Offshore Business" on MOL's website.

(*2)The FSRU has capability to reload LNG cargo to shuttle tankers as well as send gas through pipelines. For details, please refer to the press release on July 22, 2016:
"MOL Signs Deal on Long-Term Charter Contract for Uruguay LNG FSRU Project."

(*3)For details, please refer to the press release on September 3, 2014:
"MOL, Viken Shipping Conclude Partnership."

From left:
Geir Sjøberg - President & CEO of AKOFS;
Kristian Røkke - CEO of Akastor;
Koichi Wakana - General Manager, Third Projects Development Division, Infrastructure Projects Business Unit, Mitsui & Co.;
Hiroyuki Nakano - General Manager, Offshore & LNG Project Division, Energy Transport Business Unit, MOL