KUALA LUMPUR (March 11): MISC Bhd has secured seven-year charter contracts from Shell for three newbuilding crude carriers, for operations in international waters.

In a filing today, MISC said the contracts were secured by AET Inc Ltd, the vessel-owning entity of petroleum shipping firm AET Tanker Holdings Sdn Bhd, which is in turn wholly-owned by MISC.

The three vessels are LNG dual fuel very large crude carriers (VLCCs), which will serve Shell’s unit Shell Tankers (Singapore) Pvt Ltd from the third quarter of 2023, the filing said.

It is the first long-term contract announced by MISC this year.

At end-2020, MISC Group’s fleet consisted of more than 100 owned and in-chartered vessels comprising liquefied natural gas (LNG), petroleum and product vessels, very large ethan carriers, 14 floating production systems, as well as two LNG floating storage units. The fleet has a combined deadweight tonnage capacity of more than 11 million tonnes.

Shares of MISC fell seven sen or 1% today to close at RM6.90, valuing the Petronas-linked shipping firm at RM30.8 billion.