The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday stated that 91 companies, consisting mainly of indigenous vessel owners, are vying to secure the contract for the provision of coastal and bunkering vessel services for the operations of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC.
The NNPC in a statement after the public harvesting of technical bids submitted by the companies stated that the ongoing bid exercise seeks to engage the services of reputable organizations with essentially three ranges of Deadweight Tonnage (DWT) 5, 000-8, 000 DWT, 10, 000- 20, 000 DWT and 25, 000-50, 000 DWT.
Under the scope of work, according to the NNPC, the coastal vessel is expected to provide the following services; evacuate petroleum products from NNPC coastal refineries to various discharge ports in Nigeria or outside Nigeria as may be designated by PPMC, delivery of petroleum products to water fed depots with restricted draft jetties of 6.0 to 11 metres as well as conduct ship-to-ship transfer of cargo from import tankers and discharge same at waters depots among other functions.
“The desired bunkering vessel services entails loading of Automated Gas Oil (AGO) and Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) from water-fed refineries for bunkering purposes, supply bunkers to NNPC owned and chartered vessels as required on a monthly basis, keeping accurate accounts for AGO and LPFO loaded and supplied to NNPC vessels, forwarding records of the bunkering activities to Marine Transport department of the PPMC on a monthly basis among other activities,” the NNPC stated.
The exercise which was conducted at the Corporate Headquarters of the NNPC in Abuja in the full glare of representatives of the bidding companies also had officials of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) as independent assessors.
Declaring the exercise open, Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Ibe Kachikwu, expressed delight in the massive turn out of indigenous Nigerian companies and vessel owners in the bid process.
He said, “I am happy that there is much show of interest in this process. The process is going to be transparent from the beginning to the end and we want the best yield in terms of value addition and best services and obviously we are going to grow the Nigerian content in this regard. I am hoping that you are going to be part of the journey that we are taking NNPC through.”
Kachikwu pledged to sustain the ongoing reform process in the corporation which has witnessed the monthly publication of NNPC financial and operational transactions for public scrutiny and the recent public harvesting of bids tendered for the new offshore processing contracts among other initiatives.
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