Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui) and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) on the formation of a joint venture company with AKOFS Offshore AS and the acquisition of the subsea equipment support vessel “Skandi Santos”.

The transaction is Mitsui’s and MOL’s first endeavour into subsea vessel support business.

The Tokyo and London offices of Norton Rose Fulbright advised on the debt and equity financing of the acquisition of the vessel, the commercial contracts including the acquisition and charter documentation, and on the joint venture arrangements between Mitsui, MOL and their Norwegian counterparty, AKOFS.

Brazil's national oil company, Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., has chartered the Skandi Santos from AKOFS since 2010, using it to install subsea facilities in deep-sea oil and gas fields offshore Brazil.

Paul Coggins, a partner in the Tokyo office of Norton Rose Fulbright commented:

“This joint venture represents an exciting opportunity for both Mitsui and MOL in a new business sector and represents for Norton Rose Fulbright a confirmation of our global platform across multiple practice areas in offshore maritime matters.”

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was led by Tokyo partner Paul Coggins, with assistance from of counsel Jason Lemann and associates Yui Ota, Jonathan Wang and Jennifer Brightling. The London team was led by partner Chris Viner with assistance from associate Mayuko Sakai.