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AET, an owner and operator of petroleum and chemical tankers, and the Norwegian energy company Statoil have announced to extend their partnership in the North Sea shuttle tanker sector.

Statoil has, today, awarded a long-term contract to AET, a subsidiary of Malaysian energy ship[ds_preview]ping group, MISC Berhad, to own and operate two specialist DP2 Offshore Loading Shuttle Tankers (OLSTs).

These new vessels are in addition to the two AET DP2 ships currently on charter in the same area for Statoil. The two existing DP2 tankers are owned and operated by AET Sea Shuttle AS (AETSS), a joint venture company formed in 2012 that is also 95 % owned by AET and 5 % by Norwegian ADS Shipping.

The two twin skeg 125,000 dwt 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.

The new tankers will operate on dual-fuel engines

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 shipping company stated. Each will be equipped with winterisation features, high power thrusters, shaft generators and the latest generation of bow loading system. With a focus on energy efficiency, the shuttle tankers will be built with LNG dual fuel for main and auxiliary engines and also an option to be fitted with a Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) recovery system. Other environmental innovations will maximise fuel efficiency and minimise emissions. When in operation from 2019, these two DPSTs are expected to be the world‘s first LNG fuelled DPSTs.

OSM Maritime Group will provide the lead technical management, supported by the MISC Group, during the construction of the vessels.