MOL launches coastal LNG shuttle transport project in RI

By Romel S. Gurky

Japan?s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (MOL) announced Friday that it has teamed up with a local partner in Indonesia, PT Pelindo Energi Logistik (PEL), to launch joint operation of the LNG carrier Triputra, which conducted the project's first discharging operation at the Port of Benoa on Bali Island.

The company said in a statement that this is the second coastal shuttle transport project following one serving for West Java, for which MOL secured an order in 2011. In that project, a vessel shuttle-transports LNG to the Port of Benoa, and discharges it to a floating storage unit (FSU) moored there.

PEL, the charterer, is working to establish a gas value chain with the new method-transferring LNG discharged to FSU to the floating regasification unit (FRU) moored at the pier. This facility regasifies the LNG and pipes the gas to a power plant on Bali. ?This is a groundbreaking project that pioneers a new mode of transport for natural gas,? MOL said in the statement.

Since 1986 when MOL established a joint ship management company with a local partner in Indonesia, it has focused on training Indonesian mariners. MOL said as a world-leading LNG carrier owner and management company, it takes a proactive stance in offering LNG transport services in Southeast Asia including Indonesia, where domestic demand is increasing for natural gas as a clean energy source, by effectively using its accumulated know-how and resources not only in the ocean LNG carrier field, but also in coastal LNG transport.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak