Container vessel under way on the Gulf of Guinea

Bulk Ship & Trade Ltd. (BSTL)

Innovative
Logistics Partner

Forty years moving cargo through Tema and Takoradi. Ship agency, husbandry, brokerage, and logistics — for oil & gas majors, global charterers, and the port authorities that keep West African trade moving. We know what a 2am vessel arrival demands. We also know what it costs when it gets handled badly.

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40+

Years of expertise in the maritime industry

2002

Founded as Bulk Ship and Trade Ltd

24/7

Real-time vessel tracking and updates

Trusted by international partners and local stakeholders since 1986

Oil & Gas Leaders● Mining Corporations● Energy Solutions● Global Charterers● Ghana Terminal Operators● Port Authorities● Oil & Gas Leaders● Mining Corporations● Energy Solutions● Global Charterers● Ghana Terminal Operators● Port Authorities●

What We Do

Four Service Lines. One Standard.

Logistics, ship agency, husbandry, and protective agency. Each is its own discipline — and each has a different set of small mistakes that turn a routine port call into an expensive one. We've been solving for those mistakes since before Ghana exported its first barrel of offshore crude.

Logistics & Cargo Services

Customs clearance, project cargo, air freight, warehousing, inland haulage. The details that quietly park shipments in bonded yards for a week — those are the details we've been solving since 1986. Works for contractors supplying offshore, importers on tight charter clocks, and anyone who'd rather not guess at clearance timing.

Explore Logistics

Ship Agency

Anchorage coordination. Pilot and tug liaison. Port state control prep. Document turnaround before your ETA — not after. Wet or dry bulk, tanker or OSV: we handle the port-side conversation so the master can focus on the ship.

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Husbandry Services

Crew changes. Spare parts. Medical. Provisions, bunkers, technical support. When a master calls at 3am about a medevac, there's a name attached to the phone — not a ticket queue. That's husbandry done the way it used to be done.

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Brokerage & Protective Agency

Charterers need someone on the ground who answers only to them. Protective Agency is that someone. Brokerage adds market intelligence — what's loading, what's moving, what rates look reasonable this week across the West African coast.

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How We Work

What a Clean Port Call Looks Like

Most port calls have the same shape. Where they differ is in how early the paperwork moves, how well the authorities are briefed, and how honest the post-call settlement is. Here's how ours run.

Intake

A call, an email, or an RFQ from your operations desk. We ask about the vessel, ETA, cargo, charter party, and port of call. First response within business hours — live coverage for active port calls, around the clock.

Agency Setup

Appointment formalized with owner or charterer. Authorities pre-notified. Berth coordinated with the port authority. Documentation staged ahead of arrival — not filed against the clock while the ship waits on anchorage.

Execution

Pilot and tug, customs, cargo operations, crew matters, husbandry as required. You get daily updates — the kind that say what actually happened, not the kind that summarise the plan. Exceptions surface early.

Settlement

Transparent disbursement account. Supporting vouchers. Handover notes for the next port. We don't add mystery line items and we don't round up the launch boat charges.

40+

Years of Excellence

About Bulk Ship & Trade Ltd. (BSTL)

A Ghanaian Agency That Grew Up With the Industry

We've been a shipping agency in Ghana since 1986 — older than the deepwater Jubilee field, older than the modern expansion of Tema, older than almost everything currently docked on the Gulf of Guinea. The company took its present form as Bulk Ship & Trade Ltd. in 2002.

The core of the work hasn't changed. Do what you said you'd do. Keep the vessel moving. Don't wait for someone to ask for an update. Ghana's maritime industry has grown around us; the craft of running a port call has barely changed at all.

What has changed is what clients ask of us. Oil & gas majors want HSEQ standards audited to international benchmarks. Charterers want disbursement transparency. Local importers want customs handled without surprises. We've grown the operation to meet all three — without losing the thing that made clients come to us in the first place.

Our Full Story View Our History

Where We Operate

Two Ports, One Corridor

Ghana runs two deep-water ports. They look similar on a map. They behave differently in practice, and knowing the difference is the difference between a clean call and an expensive one.

Port of Tema

Ghana's container and bulk workhorse, thirty kilometres east of Accra. Handles the bulk of imports, project cargo, and general break-bulk. Busy, well-dredged, and under constant volume pressure — so the quality of your agent shows up fast. We've worked Tema since the company was founded.

Port of Takoradi

The primary oil & gas gateway and Ghana's historical bulk port, closer to the offshore fields that have reshaped West African energy since the Jubilee discovery in 2010. Different berth politics, different cargo mix, a different rhythm. We cover both — with the same standards and the same phone answering at both ends.

In Their Words

What principals say about BSTL

We don't publish quotes without explicit written approval from the principal. The structure is ready; real quotes replace the placeholders as clients sign off on their wording.

"Placeholder — real oil & gas principal quote goes here, approved and attributed. Keep to 30–50 words, focused on a specific operational outcome rather than a generic 'great service' line."

Name withheld pending approval Role · Company · Country

"Placeholder — charterer or tanker operator quote, describing a specific call they remember. We want two or three sentences at most, not a paragraph."

Name withheld pending approval Role · Company · Country

"Placeholder — Ghanaian importer or EPC contractor. Mentions the customs/clearance experience or the offshore logistics outcome that mattered."

Name withheld pending approval Role · Company · Country

Quotes on file, publishing on approval. For references during a panel-audit or pre-appointment check, ask our operations desk.

Our Commitment

Shipping Isn't a Clean Industry. It Can Be a Responsible One.

HSEQ standards, waste reception, spill response drills, sustainability reporting. We operate where international oil & gas clients audit their agents — and we meet that bar. The community investment is because we live here too.

HSEQ

Health, Safety, Environment & Quality is the framework every operation runs through — documented, drilled, and auditable. It's the reason oil & gas clients keep us on the panel.

View HSEQ Policy

Corporate Social Responsibility

Ghanaian maritime training. Coastal community partnerships. Environmental programmes run with the communities they actually affect. Small scale, consistent — not announcements.

Read about CSR

Tell Us the Vessel and the Port.

Looking for a shipping agent, a protective agent, or a husbandry partner? A short email is usually all we need to scope a quote. We'll come back with a straight answer, not a brochure.

Start the Conversation

InnovativeLogistics Partner

Four Service Lines. One Standard.

Logistics & Cargo Services

Ship Agency

Husbandry Services

Brokerage & Protective Agency

What a Clean Port Call Looks Like

Intake

Agency Setup

Execution

Settlement

A Ghanaian Agency That Grew Up With the Industry

Two Ports, One Corridor

Port of Tema

Port of Takoradi

What principals say about BSTL

Shipping Isn't a Clean Industry. It Can Be a Responsible One.

HSEQ

Corporate Social Responsibility

Tell Us the Vessel and the Port.

Innovative
Logistics Partner