No fewer than 96 companies from Nigeria and overseas have
indicated interest in undertaking the rehabilitation of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) downstream infrastructure.
The jobs to be done include rehabilitating pipelines,
depots, refineries and terminals through the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT)
financing model.
This was disclosed at a virtual public bid opening exercise
which held at the NNPC Towers, Abuja for the pre-qualification of companies for
the contract.
Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the
NNPC, Dr. Kennie Obateru, said the public opening of the bids for the contracts
was in keeping with the NNPC Management’s commitment to transparency and
accountability in all its processes and transactions.
Speaking at the event, the Managing Director of the Nigerian
Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC), Mrs. Ada Oyetunde, disclosed that the
exercise was in conformity with the mandate of the Federal Government to
prioritise the rehabilitation of critical downstream infrastructure across the
country.
She listed the facilities that would be rehabilitated by
successful bidders to include critical pipelines for crude oil supply to the
refineries and evacuation of refined products, depots, and terminals.
She said that the objective is to get them ready to support
the refineries when they become operational after their rehabilitation.
“An open tender for pre-qualification of interested
companies was published in August 2020 in the national dailies, for the
rehabilitation of NNPC downstream critical pipelines and associated depots and
terminal infrastructure through Finance BOT to cover the 4 lots namely: Lot 1:
Port Harcourt Refinery related infrastructure, Lot 2: Warri Refinery related
infrastructure, Lot 3: Kaduna Refinery related infrastructure and Lot 4: System
2B related infrastructure,” Oyetunde stated.
The NPSC boss said that the BOT arrangement would provide a
reliable pipeline network and automated storage facilities for effective crude
feed, product storage and evacuation from the nation’s refineries post-revamp
through an open access model and charge market reflective prices and tariffs to
recover the investment.
The Group General Manager, Supply Chain Management, Mrs.
Aisha Katagum, commended the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission
(ICRC), and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for providing guidance for
the project and assured the bidding firms of a fair, equitable and transparent
selection process.
On hand to observe proceedings at the public bid opening
exercise were representatives of the ICRC, BPP, the Nigeria Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and Civil Liberties Organisations
(CLOs).
Highpoint of the event was the display of the 96 companies
that submitted bids for the rehabilitation projects.