SHELL IN NIGERIA

BONGA DEEP
WATER PROJECT

May 2010

Unlocking Nigeria’s offshore energy in deep water

In November 2005, The Shell Nigeria Exploration and
Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) began to produce oil
and gas at Bonga, 120 kilometres (km) offshore Nigeria in the
Gulf of Guinea. The project -- the country’s first in deep water
-- increased Nigeria’s oil capacity by 10%, allowing Nigeria
to remain one of the world’s largest energy producers for
decades to come.

First discovered in 1995, Bonga lies in water 1000 metres

deep across an area of 60 square km. It has the capacity to
produce more than 200,000 barrels of oil a day and 150
million cubic feet of gas a day. By the end March 2010,
Bonga had produced over 280 million barrels of oil.

Bonga has set new standards for the Nigerian energy industry.
The skills and technology we have used here could enable
Nigeria to become a major offshore producer and help meet
global demand for energy long into the future.
Helipad onboard Bonga, 120 km offshore Nigeria.
The Bonga field supplies gas to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural
Gas Company Limited (NLNG) at Bonny Island, from where it
is exported to European and other markets. Oil is exported
globally from the Bonga FPSO - the giant floating, production,
storage and offloading vessel that is at the heart of the field’s Tug boats then towed it 24,000 km via Egypt’s Suez Canal,
development. through the Tyne to Wallsend in the north of England, where it
was fitted with processing equipment modules before making
Advanced technology and engineering its final journey to Nigeria where the last of the equipment
Bonga is one of the world’s largest FPSOs. Three hundred was installed.
metres long and the height of a12-storey building, Bonga’s
deck is the size of three football fields. It receives crude from Nigerian content
production wells on the seabed. The oil is processed onboard, Nigerian companies contributed significantly to the success of
stored and then sent to the single point mooring (SPM) - a the Bonga project. Three of the Bonga modules were designed
buoy anchored nearby that is used to load it onto tankers for and built in Nigeria. The foundation piles for the FPSO, the
export. When fully laden with oil, Bonga weighs 300,000 risers and the giant single point mooring buoy which was at
tonnes. It is held in place by 500-tonne anchors linked by 20 the time, the largest in the world for deepwater operations,
km of high-strength chains. weighing about 870 tonnes - were also built in Nigeria.

Constructing Bonga was an international effort involving The project helped create the first generation of Nigerian oil
thousands of workers across the globe. Samsung Heavy and gas engineers with deep-water experience. When it
Industries built the hull in South Korea. began, Nigeria had few contractors with the technical
capacity or scale to support the development. SNEPCo began
training Nigerian operation and production engineers for

BONGA DEEP WATER PROJECT £

 Topside Bonga FPSO. Bonga FPSO 120km offshore Nigeria.

Bonga in 1999. By the end of 2009, some 85% of Bonga’s And in March 2008, SNEPCo conducted Nigeria’s first-ever
core offshore staff were Nigerian. Bonga also stimulated the four-dimensional seismic survey at the Bonga field, covering
growth of support industries vital to offshore deep-water an area of more than 1,000 square km. These are surveys
projects. Nigerdock’s Snake Island facility in Lagos, was taken at intervals and allow engineers to track movements of
developed as a support base for Bonga’s operations and a oil and water over time and build an accurate understanding
modern onshore base was established at Onne in Rivers State of how they are being drained from the field. The results
in the Niger Delta, for subsea equipment testing and provided valuable information that will allow SNEPCo to
maintenance. Together these have helped create jobs and maximise production from Bonga and other fields being
provide a range of training and maintenance services to the developed nearby. The survey is a good example of the
offshore industry. Also at Onne, a contracting company has important contribution Nigerians trained by Shell companies
built an ultra modern facility to coat and insulate pipes – in Nigeria are making to deepwater exploration in Nigeria.
essential to withstand deep-water conditions. The project also Forty percent of those who worked on the survey are Nigerian
benefited the wider economy by boosting demand for a range and will form the core of the senior crew for further surveys.
of goods and services including boats, materials, floating
hotels, helicopters and manpower. As of April 2010, the FPSO vessel recorded four straight years
of operation without a single incident resulting in lost time, a
Bonga today – innovating significant accomplishment considering the complexity of the
SNEPCo is working on the Bonga Main Integrated Project facility, and the challenging environment.
(BMIP) -- that will allow the Bonga FPSO to operate at full
capacity for longer. The BMIP project is intended to develop
deposits to the northwest of the original Bonga production More information on the operations of Shell companies in
area. These additional reserves lie in average water depths of Nigeria can be found at shellnigeria.com
1000 -1200 meters. BMIP merges various smaller projects and
will involve drilling 36 new wells.

Published by Shell Companies in Nigeria: Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited and
Shell Nigeria Gas Limited.

Royal Dutch Shell plc. and the companies in which it directly or indirectly owns investments are separate and distinct entities. But in this publication,
the collective expression ‘Shell’ may be used for convenience where reference is made in general to these companies.