MOL enters offshore vessel support field

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has teamed up with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and AKOFS Offshore AS to purchase a subsea support vessel through a new joint venture company, Avium Subsea AS.    Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has teamed up with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and AKOFS Offshore AS to purchase the subsea support vessel Skandi Santos through a new joint venture company, Avium Subsea AS, marking MOL’s first step into the subsea business, MOL said.
   AKOFS has a 50 percent share in Norway-based Avium Subsea AS, which launched last Wednesday, while MOL and Mitsui & Co. each have a 25 percent share in the new joint venture.
   Brazil’s national oil company, Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., has chartered the Skandi Santos from AKOFS since 2010 for the installation of subsea facilities in deep-sea oil and gas fields off the coast of Brazil. The 120-meter long vessel has a 7-meter draft and a deadweight of 6,012 metric tons. It was delivered in December 2009 and is registered in Norway.
   MOL said, “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 and offloading (FPSO) system; floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU); and shuttle tanker operations. MOL is pooling its individual strengths to promote and expand the subsea support vessel business, which requires advanced technologies.”