Bonny Gas Transport

Bonny Gas Transport or Bonny Gas Transport Bermuda Shell is a subsidiary of Nigeria LNG or NLNG which itself is a joint-venture of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Royal Dutch Shell, Total S.A. and Eni. It owns and operates a number of LNG tankers.[1]

Bonny Gas Transport
BGT

Type	private, 100% subsidiary
Industry	Oil and gas
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Abuja, Nigeria
Products	services: LNG-tankers

The company

BGT was established in Bermuda in 1989 by the NLNG holding-company. It takes care of the transportation of the produce of this company. LNG is found in the fields on Bonny Island in the Niger Delta in Nigeria by the NNPC and then sold to Shell, Total and ENI. In 2005 the bulk of this gas goes to Europe and about 2% to Northern-America. The completion of Train 6 in 2008 increased the output of the Bonny Island fields, and of this new output approximately 50% goes to Europe and the other 50% to North-America.[2]

Ownership

As it is a 100% daughter of NLNG the ownership of BGT is the same as that of NNLNG and thus:

NNPC = 49%

Shell = 25,6%

Total = 15%

ENI = 10,4%

Financing

The income of BGT comes from long-term charters of their ships to NLNG: BGT's activities are limited to charter ships to NLNG and all gas found at the fields in the Bonny Island project by NNPC is sold to the above companies and the transport over the Atlantic Ocean to Europe or America is done via BGT ships.

Until 2006 BGT had a range of different (bank)loans to finance the buying and updating the LNG tankers. On October 2006 a deal was made with a consortium of banks to re-finance US$ 680 million. The original loans were related to 9 ships; this new deal also included the room to extend the fleet to the current 13 ships: in the years following the completion of this deal the output of the Bonny gas fields was expected and it was foreseen that additional shipping-capacity was required (see also the main-article on Nigeria LNG).

Because the gas and oil projects in the Niger Delta, including Bonny Island, are seen as high-risk investments, the financing of the ships to transport any produce from the area, are done via a separate company (BGT): even when the worst come to the worst and there would be no gas to be transported from the area the ships can be used anywhere in the world; thus financing the ships was seen as lower risk then financing the mother company itself.[2]

In January 2012 NNPC said that they were trying to raise US $ 1 billion to renew the fleet of their daughter-company BGT[3]

Activities

BGT was set up by Nigeria NLG to transport all LNG gas produced by its mother company in Nigeria to the customers in North America and Europe.[2]

Fleet

The website Helderline provides an overview of 13 of these ships.[1] All ships that are managed by BGT also sail for BGT[4]

Fleetlist

As of April 2012, the company owned and operated the following LNG carriers:[1][4]

Name	launched	shipyard build-number	IMO number	tonnage	flag	former name or notes
LNG Abuja	1980	General Dynamics buildnr:54	7619587	93.619	Bahamas	Lake Charles (1980–2000)
LNG Adamawa	2005	Hyundai buildnr:1470	9262211	118.000	Bermuda
LNG Akwa Ibom	2004	Hyundai buildnr:1469	9262209	118.000	Bermuda	sister-ship of LNG Adamawa
LNG Bayelsa	2004	Hyundai buildnr:1429	9241267	118.000	Bermuda	sister-ship of LNG Adamawa
LNG Bonny	1981	Kockums Shipyard buildnr: 559	7708948	71.472	Bermuda	Rhenania (1981–1991)
LNG Cross River	2005	Hyundai buildnr:1471	9262223	118.000	Bermuda	sister-ship of LNG Adamawa,
LNG Edo	1980	General Dynamics buildnr:53	7619587	93.619	Bahamas	Louisiana (1980–2000) sistership of LNG Abuja
LNG Finima	1084	Kockums Shipyard buildr:564	7702401	71.472	Bermuda	LNG 564 (1984–1991) sistership of LNG Bonny
LNG Lagos	1977	Chantiers de l'Atlantique buildnr:26	7360124	68.122	Bermuda	MV Gastor (1977–1993)
LNG Port Harcourt	1976	Chantiers de l'Atlantique buildnr:B26	7360136	68.122	Bermuda	MV Nestor (1976–1993) sistership of LNG Lagos
LNG River Niger	2006	Hyundai buildnr:1472	9262235	118.000	Bermuda	sister-ship of LNG Adamawa
LNG Rivers	2002	Hyundai buildnr:1295	9216298	114.354	Bermuda
LNG Sokoto[5]	2002	Hyundai buildnr:1296	9216303	114.354	Bermuda	sister-ship of LNG Rivers

Sources and references

1. Helderline website with overview of ships operated by BGT Bermuda Shell, visited 21 April 2012
2. LNGPedia Refinancing of BGT, 2006, Ben Cobley. Retrieved: 21 April 2012
3. Bloomberg website: Nigeria LNG in Talks for $1 Billion Funding for Shipping Unit, 30 January 2012. Visited: 21 April 2012
4. Helderline website with overview of ships sailing for BGT Bermuda Shell, visited 21 April 2012
5. Briefly shown in Engineering Connections - Supertanker | Science Documentary, Richard Hammond, at 48:50, via YouTube.