The company was founded by Sigval Bergesen d.y. (1893–1980). He was the son of Sigval Bergesen, who was also a shipping magnate, but in 1935 he broke with his father to form his own company. The same year he bought the tanker President de Vogue (renamed Bergesund), in 1937 Charles Racine and in 1939 Anders Jahre (renamed Bergeland). By the time of the war he then had three major tankers, though Charles Racine was hit by torpedoes and destroyed in 1942. Bergesen used the war to position himself in the market, and by 1950 he had four ships in his fleet, by 1955 the fleet had reached seven, and 16 by 1970. Two of its OBO ships, MS Berge Istra and MS Berge Vanga disappeared under mysterious, however similar circumstances in 1975 and 1979, and the company to this day keeps all information about the disasters secret.
In 1976 Sigval Bergesen d.y. was forced to retire for health reasons. Management of the company was handed over to his two grandchildren, Petter C.G. Sundt and Morten Sig. Bergesen. Ten years later, the company went from being a privately owned to a publicly traded company. Sundt and Bergesen sold their shares in the company to World-Wide Group in 2003, which rebranded into Bergesen Worldwide and then BW Group (BW).
Today, BW has 3,500 employees worldwide. It is the world's largest owner and operator of gas carriers, a business segment it moved into in 1978, and has a large fleet of liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers.
A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S, also known simply as Maersk, is a Danish integrated shipping company, active in ocean and inland freight transportation and associated services, such as supply chain management and port operation. Maersk has been the largest container shipping line and vessel operator in the world since 1996. The company is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, with subsidiaries and offices across 130 countries and around 83,000 employees worldwide in 2020.
Sigval Bergesen d.y. was one of Norway’s leading shipping magnates and industrial entrepreneurs.
The Norwegian America Line, was a cruise ship line, originally an operator of passenger and cargo ships. Founded in 1910, the company ran a regular transatlantic service between Norway and the United States, and later included a route to East Africa as well. Primarily due to competition from air travel, transatlantic passenger voyages were slowly discontinued during the years.
MS Berge Stahl is a bulk carrier. Until the delivery of MS Vale Brasil in 2011 she was the longest and largest iron ore carrier in the world. She is registered in Douglas, Isle of Man. Before that, she was registered in Stavanger, Norway as well as in Monrovia, Liberia.
Berge Sigval Natanael Bergesen was a Norwegian shipowner and industrialist who served as a member of the Norwegian Parliament.
BW Group is a maritime company involved in shipping, floating gas infrastructure and deep-water oil & gas production. The company has over 350 vessels managed by an international team of over 7000 staff worldwide. The group was founded by Sir Yue-Kong Pao in Hong Kong in 1955 as World-Wide Shipping. In 2003, the company acquired Bergesen d.y. ASA, Norway's largest shipping company, which was founded in 1935 by Sigval Bergesen the Younger. In 2005, the business was re-branded as BW. With its LNG and LPG fleets combined, BW Group owns and operates the world's largest gas shipping fleet of more than 115 gas vessels, including four FSRUs. Hafnia, a member of the BW Group, operates the world's largest fleet of oil product tankers, and BW Offshore comprises the second largest number of floating oil and gas production units (FPSOs). BW's controlled fleet of over 350 ships also includes crude oil supertankers and dry bulk carriers.
BW Offshore Limited is a global owner and operator of floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels. The company is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. The company has its headquarters in Singapore and Oslo, Norway but operates internationally. The largest owner is BW Group Limited with 49,3% of the shares.
BW Gas, previously known as Bergesen Worldwide Gas, is the world's largest gas shipping company and is part of the Bergesen Worldwide Group. The company has 98 gas carriers with a total of 4,688,531 tonnes deadweight (DWT) transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gases. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange.
Odfjell SE is a company specialising in worldwide seaborne transportation and storage of chemicals and other speciality bulk liquids. The Odfjell fleet comprises more than 80 ships in total. The ships transport around 600 different kinds of liquids, including organic and inorganic bulk liquid chemicals, acids, animal fats, edible oils, portable alcohols and clean petroleum products. Odfjell’s ships are mainly registered in Norway (NIS) and Singapore, and are primarily manned by Norwegian and Filipino mariners.
MS Berge Istra was a ship owned by Norwegian shipping company Sig. Bergesen d.y. and registered in Liberia, an ore-bulk-oil carrier with 227,550 tonnes deadweight (DWT). She was carrying ore from Brazil to Japan, and returning with crude oil from the Persian Gulf to Europe or America. The ship had build number 296 at the Uljanik shipyard in the port city Pula in then SFR Yugoslavia, today Croatia where it was built in 1972.
MS Berge Vanga was an ore-bulk-oil carrier with 227,912 tonnes deadweight (DWT). The ship was owned by Norwegian shipping company Sig. Bergesen d.y. and registered in Liberia. The ship had build number 300 at the Uljanik shipyard in the port city Pula in Croatia where it was built in 1974.
An ore-bulk-oil carrier, also known as combination carrier or OBO, is a ship designed to be capable of carrying wet or dry cargoes. The idea is to reduce the number of empty (ballast) voyages, in which large ships only carry a cargo one way and return empty for another. These are a feature of the larger bulk trades.
The history of the oil tanker is part of the evolution of the technology of oil transportation alongside the oil industry.
Ole Bergesen was a Norwegian ship-owner.
Berge Sigval Natanael Bergesen was a Norwegian ship-owner.
Morten Sigval Bergesen is a Norwegian ship-owner.
Helmut Sohmen is an Austrian lawyer and businessman in Hong Kong. He was chairman of BW Group and a former Hong Kong legislator. He was formerly managing director of Dragon Air.
Berge Emperor was a supertanker built in 1975, in Japan, by Mitsui. At 391.83 m (1,285.5 ft) she was one of the world's longest ships.
John Anthony Angelicoussis was a Greek billionaire, owner of the Angelicoussis Shipping Group.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
