Tokyo: Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), via a joint venture shipowning company with Itochu Corporation, has secured charter agreements with Germany’s E.ON for a new European LNG shipping business. The joint venture also signed a deal with Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering to build up to two new 179,900 cu m LNG carriers.
MOL will manage the two new vessels, which will transport LNG from a shale gas liquefying plant in North America to Europe and other destinations around the world. The ship order is one firm plus an option with the first ship set to deliver in 2018.
The move is in line with MOL’s plans to get more non-Japan related LNG contracts.
