AET, the tanker arm of Malaysia’s top shipping line MISC, has penned a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Thailand’s largest state-owned, multinational energy company, PTT for the development and construction of two ammonia-fuelled aframaxes.
Under the deal, AET will select a suitable shipyard for the pair of zero-emission dual-fuel tankers with deliveries to PTT for long-term charters in the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.
AET’s president and CEO and MISC group COOm, Captain Rajalingam Subramaniam, said the collaboration with PTT also goes beyond these first two ships.
“As like-minded partners, this MOU provides an avenue to work together on the design, safety and operational aspects as well as reskilling of mariners as part of the deliverables prior to the potential investment in this innovative project to meet the 2050 environmental agenda earlier than later,” he remarked, adding that providing the much-needed boost to create a green ammonia corridor in Southeast Asia would be another desired outcome of this MOU.
AET in April together with South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries and class society Lloyd’s Register, formed the Castor Initiative to develop two very large crude carriers (VLCCs) which can be operated on green ammonia. The company said the agreement with PTT would complement the initiative, which also includes MAN Energy Solutions, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Yara and Jurong Port, in its plans to have the first of these dual-fuel tankers enter into service in late 2025.
