Statoil ASA and AET are extending their partnership in the North Sea shuttle tanker sector. Statoil has awarded a long-term contract to AET, a subsidiary of Malaysian energy shipping group, MISC Berhad, to operate two specialist DP2 offshore loading shuttle tankers (OLSTs) on long-term charter. These new vessels will be in addition to the two AET DP2 ships currently on charter, in the same area, for Statoil.
The two twin skeg 125,000dwt tankers will be built by Samsung Heavy Industries for delivery in 2019 and will be contracted to Statoil for operations both in oilfields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf of the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and the southern Barents Sea, as well as on the UK Continental Shelf.
Built to a superior specification with a fatigue life based on 30 years of operations in the North Sea, they will be fully capable of working in the harshest of weather conditions.
The shuttle tankers will be built with LNG dual-fuel for main and auxiliary engines. When in operation from 2019, these two DPSTs are expected to be the world’s first LNG fueled DPSTs and most energy efficient.
