By John Meze
Buoyed by the Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) of the current Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) management, no fewer than 96 reputable companies from various jurisdictions have indicated interest in undertaking the rehabilitation of the Corporation’s downstream infrastructure.
The scope ranges from critical pipelines to depots 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.
According to the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Dr. Kennie Obateru, 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.
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, 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.
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.
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).
Highpoint of the event was the display of the 96 companies that submitted bids for the rehabilitation projects.