The Bonga

The Bonga arrived in the North East last month after being towed 13,000 miles from South Korea, but bad weather previously prevented it being brought up the river and it sheltered in Rotterdam. The hull was guided backwards up the Tyne by Eight deep sea tugs to AMEC’s Wallsend facility. AMEC will now spend the next 10 months project managing the programme to turn the hull into one of the largest and most complex floating oil and gas production facilities ever built. The floating gas and oil production platform will be fitted with 22,000 tonnes of processing equipment at the Amec shipyard, before being towed to the Nigerian Bonga oil field.

Bonga Facts & Figures

** 19/10/2003 Update **
Well after a few delays the Bonga finally left the River Tyne today. She began her journey at approximately 7.00am and passed through the mouth of the Tyne at about 9.55am

Asian Hercules II

The Asian Hercules II has been brought into the Tyne to enable Amec to fit the processing equipment onto the deck of the Bonga. The Asian Hercules II is one of the biggest floating sheerleg cranes in the world - and certainly the biggest in Europe. It has a deck the size of a football pitch and the main lifting legs project over 350 feet into the air - some 60ft higher than Big Ben and almost as tall as the London Eye Millennium Wheel. The 10,560-ton barge is over 250 ft long and over 100 ft wide and has enough power to lift a weight equal to over 4,000 cars. However, it has a very small crew - of only 12 people. They all live onboard and the vessel is outfitted like a modern hotel with a full time chef and rooms for 20 people. It is self-propelled and can produce enough electricity to power a small town. Each of its 8 mooring wires is over ½ mile long. The Asian Hercules II is probably most famous on Tyneside as being the crane that transported the Gateshead Millennium Bridge up the river Tyne and positioned it so precisely.


Asian Hercules II Facts & Figures

Click here for Bonga & Asian Hercules II photo Gallery