91 firms bid for NNPC coastal, bunkering vessel contract          

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday embarked on public harvesting of technical bids submitted by a total of 91 companies consisting largely of indigenous vessel owners that are vying to secure contract for the provision of coastal and bunkering vessel services.

The contract is to facilitate the efficient operations of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, in the delivery of its statutory mandate in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

The exercise, which was conducted at the NNPC’s corporate headquarters 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) in attendance as independent assessors.

Ibe Kachikwu, group managing director of NNPC, while declaring the exercise open, expressed delight in the massive turn out and participation of indigenous Nigerian companies and vessel owners in the bid process.

“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,” Kachikwu further said.

He also pledged to sustain the ongoing reform process in the Corporation, which has witnessed the monthly publication of NNPC’s financial and operational transactions for public scrutiny and the recent public harvesting of bids tendered for the new Offshore Processing contracts, among other initiatives.

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, the coastal vessel is designed to provide services such as the evacuation of petroleum products from NNPC coastal refineries to various discharge ports within or outside Nigeria as may be designated by PPMC; the delivery of petroleum products to water-fed depots with restricted draft jetties of 6.0 to 11metres, and the conduct of ship-to-ship transfer of cargo from import tankers and the discharge of same at water depots among other functions.

The desired bunkering vessel services entail the loading of automated gas oil (AGO) and low pour fuel oil (LPFO) from water-fed refineries for bunkering purposes; the supply of bunkers to NNPC owned and chartered vessels as required on a monthly basis; keeping of accurate accounts for AGO and LPFO loaded and supplied to NNPC Vessels; and the forwarding of records of bunkering activities to the marine transport department of (PPMC) on a monthly basis among others.

YANGE IKYAA