MOL moves into offshore vessel sector with Skandi Santos deal

Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd (MOL) has teamed up with Mitsui & Co Ltd and AKOFS Offshore to acquire the subsea support vessel Skandi Santos through a three-way joint venture company called Avium Subsea AS. The company started the business on 23 November. Brazil’s national oil company, Petrobras, has chartered 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. MOL has also agreed to examine opportunities to expand co-operative ties, based on a long-term perspective, with Mitsui & Co, AKOFS, and its parent company Akastor ASA.

In a statement the companies 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 in addition to its FPSO, FSRU and shuttle tanker operations. MOL is pooling its individual strengths to promote and expand the subsea support vessel business, which requires advanced technologies.”