MOL to manage, operate Reliance VLEC newbuilds

DECEMBER 25, 2014 — Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) says it has entered a strategic association with India’s Reliance Industries for the transportation of Liquefied Ethane from United States to India.

The liquid ethane will be carried in the six new 87,000 cu.m very large ethane carriers (VLECs) ordered by Reliance earlier this year at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea.

In a regulatory filing on July 17, 2014, the shipbuilder said the contract for the six gas carriers was worth $723 million.
MOL says it will supervise the construction of the six VLECs at the shipyard and  operate and manage the vessels after they are delivered.

Reliance says that with this strategic tie-up with MOL, it has achieved a key milestone for the successful implementation of  its ethane import project to feed crackers in India.

MOL says that VLECs are a hybrid of LNG carrier and LPG carrier and that its experience with both types of carrier positions it to leverage on its existing capabilities to tap this new opportunity.