The new tanker venture between MSea Group and Scorpio Tankers, Clean Sea Transport (CST), is not limiting its ambitions to the wet side of the business.
CST, which is also co-owned by US private equity fund Arkview Capital, has bought Sweden's Marinvest and its fleet of nine dual-fuel methanol tankers and conventional LR1s, including a newbuilding recently delivered from Hyundai Mipo Dockyard.
The joint venture also wants to be a platform for charterers to have access to methanol-powered containerships and bulkers, as well as more tankers.
But work has yet to start on any plans for boxship and dry cargo newbuildings.
Interest has now been piqued by AP Moller-Maersk ordering up to a dozen 16,000-teu methanol-fuelled containerships at Hyundai Heavy Industries in the summer.
One market source told TradeWinds: "Maersk thinks it works for boxships."
The source added that methanol should be equally viable for bulkers.
Marinvest has unique practical experience of methanol engines as one of the technology's pioneers and is poised to help CST grow, the source said.
Cyprus-based tanker owner MSea has been cooperating with Scorpio for many years, with the US-listed company providing technical management for a number of its vessels. MSea also has a couple of ships in Scorpio pools.
Scorpio said in its second-quarter results in August that it had acquired a minority interest in a nine-ship tanker fleet.
The tanker company's 6% equity stake in CST cost $7.2m, valuing the whole deal at $120m.
Scorpio views the transaction as a way of understanding the technology thoroughly.
TradeWinds is told the equity investment part of the transaction is pretty evenly split between MSea and Arkview, with debt financing also involved.
Newcomer to shipping
Arkview was established in Stamford last year by three private equity specialists who used to work for the Ziff family.
The fund is said to be very focused on environmental investments.
The management team at MSea has known the Arkview principals for many years, but this is their first cooperation.
The CST partners are said to be happy with the current set-up, which provides plenty of room to grow.
They believe methanol is widely available as a fuel "here and now", unlike ammonia for example.
"It's a very economical solution," an industry source said.
