About 96 companies have submitted bids to undertake the rehabilitation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) downstream infrastructure, including critical pipelines to depots and terminals through the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) financing model.
The willing companies were disclosed on Thursday at the NNPC Towers during a virtual public bid opening exercise held for the pre-qualification of companies for the contract.
According to a statement signed by the Group Public Affairs manager of the corporation, Dr. Kennie Obateru, the the public opening of the bids for the contract was in keeping with the NNPC Management’s commitment to transparency and accountability in all its processes and transactions.
Managing Director of the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC), Mrs. Ada Oyetunde, was quoted in the statement as saying that the exercise was in conformity with the mandate of the Federal Government to prioritise the rehabilitation of critical downstream infrastructure across the country.
According to her, the facilities that would be rehabilitated by successful bidders include critical pipelines for crude oil supply to the refineries and evacuation of refined products, depots, and terminals, stressing 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,” Mrs. Oyetunde stated.
She explained 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.
Earlier, 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).
