Nigerian gas project prompts major re-activation work

Two LNG carriers have been brought out of extended lay-up to lift gas from Nigeria, and have provided substantial work for yards in France and the USA.

Southern, owned by Argent Marine, was laid up for 18 years, and is being re-activated and refurbished at Norshipco. The vessel was built at Newport News in 1978 using the Technigaz membrane system with a cargo capacity of 126,541m3. The ship is being renamed LNG Delta and chartered to Nigeria LNG’s shipping arm Bonny Gas Transport. Shell International Trading & Shipping (STASCo) will manage the ship on its behalf, and has overseen the reactivation project.

Southern had to be re-activated in the USA as a condition of its original Marad funding, in spite of a huge price differential between American and European yards, understood to be in the region of 35 per cent. It represents the largest commercial contract in Norshipco’s history.

The second vessel, the 122,255m3 capacity LNG Lagos was built in France in 1976 using the Gaz Transport membrane system. It did not carry a single cargo, and has been laid up for 23 years. This one is owned by Bonny Gas Transport, with STASCo managing the ship on their behalf.

The work involved in reactivating the vessel, the former Gastor, was not so wide ranging owing to its technically advanced original specification, though it was still a substantial project. “It was more a question of surveying and bringing back into class,” advises STASCo’s Blair MacIntyre. The operator also had the advantage of having run a sister-ship, LNG Port Harcourt, since 1994, so they knew what to look for. Sobrena won the contract and completed the work at the end of July.