zoomImage Courtesy: AET

Singapore-headquartered petroleum logistics unit of MISC Berhad, AET, has agreed to purchase the remaining 50% of Paramount Tankers that it currently jointly owns under a 50/50 joint venture agreement with Golden Energy Tanker Holdings.

Paramount Tankers is a JV which owns and operates six Aframax vessels. Commercial management is delivered by AET and technical management is provided by Enterprises Shipping and Trading SA.

“We are continually looking for opportunities to ensure sustainable growth in our business and to own / operate modern tonnage which serves our customer needs globally. Acquiring the Paramount JV in its entirety allows us to own and operate all six vessels on our own.

“We are the commercial managers for the vessels and have commenced taking over the technical management. The vessels are of a high quality design and built to our lightering specifications and can trade world - wide to serve our global client needs,” President & CEO of AET, Captain Rajalingam Subramaniam says.

AET expects the transaction to be concluded by September 2016.

The decision follows MISC Berhad’s decision to merge its chemical fleet with the clean petroleum products fleet operated by AET, announced in March.

Under the arrangement, AET is taking over the 13 chemical vessels and one LPG tanker currently owned/operated by MISC and combining them with its own fleet of eight CPPs to create a new, single entity.

At the moment, AET operates a fleet 96 vessels comprising 12 VLCCs, 4 Suezmaxes, 1 Panamax, 50 Aframaxes, 4 DP tankers, 8 CPPs, 3 LR2 tankers, 13 chemical ships and 1 LPG tanker. Its current orderbook includes 8 newbuilds.