Japanese shipowner Mitsui OSK Lines is being tipped as the company that has been chosen as the preferred candidate to provide two LNG carrier newbuildings for chemicals giant Ineos.
Several brokers linked MOL to the business amid market talk that the charters on the ships are for periods of between 10 and 12 years.
One said the rate on one of the vessels was in the high-$80,000-per-day range, with the second in the mid-$90,000s-per-day range.
Official details on the length and rates of the charters have yet to emerge but under the timetable laid out in Ineos’ original tender, charters on the ships were due to be signed by the end of February 2023.
TradeWinds has contacted officials at both MOL and Ineos for confirmation and further details.
MOL has been circulating as one of the bidders for this business.
But industry talk picked up when the shipowner was seen contracting two LNG carrier newbuildings at Samsung Heavy Industries in February.
The shipowner paid around $248.2m each for the 174,000-cbm vessels, which are due for delivery from mid-2027 onwards.
Since then, MOL has also inked a contract for a lone LNG carrier newbuilding at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for handover by March 2027.
The owner is also believed to be sitting on at least one other uncommitted newbuilding.
In October last year, TradeWinds reported that Ineos was in the process of weighing up offers it had received after floating a tender for a pair of LNG carriers it wanted to take on charter.
Ineos Energy Trading, the trading arm of the chemicals company that also has a separate shipping division, went out to the market for two LNG carriers.
It originally requested vessels for delivery in the second half of 2026.
The tender prompted a flurry of discussions with shipowners at yards, where berth slots for LNG carriers delivering in 2026 were then in very short supply and highly priced.
The slim pickings for slots are said to have resulted in some of those owners that commonly bid for this type of business not making a play.
Ineos, which has been an early player in the mid to long-haul ethane trades, is seeking LNG carrier tonnage to ship volumes it has purchased from the US to Europe in what was its first term LNG purchase deal.
In June last year, the company signed up to buy 1.4 million tonnes per annum of LNG from Sempra Energy in the US over 20 years.
The volumes will be supplied from either Sempra’s Cameron LNG Phase 2 in Louisiana or its soon-to-be sanctioned Port Arthur LNG Phase 1 project in Texas.
