By Kenneth Jukpor
In a bid to encourage indigenous participation in crude affreightment, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has issued a tender inviting qualified and reputable companies for the sale, purchase and lifting of Nigerian Crude Oil grades.
This information was contained in a bid advert published on the company’s verified Twitter account on Wednesday, while the Corporation noted that the duration of the contract shall be for a period of one year.
NNPC, however, indicated that it aims to sell Nigerian Crude Oil grades on a Free-On-Board (FOB) basis, subject to the execution of a Sales and Purchase Agreement with the qualified assigned buyers.
The firm has broken the tender down into four separate segments with the condition that a prospective bidder can only apply under one category.
According to the announcement, the prospective bidder(s) for ‘category A’ must be a bona fide end user who owns a refinery that can process Nigerian crude oil grades and/or retail outlet.
Applicants in ‘category B’ fall under government to government arrangement with high energy consuming countries.
Applicants in this category must provide proof that the entity is wholly owned by the relevant government or provide evidence of a bilateral agreement between Nigeria and the relevant country designating the specific entity as a government representative.
‘Category C’ takes care of internationally established and globally recognized large volume crude oil traders, while indigenous Nigerian companies engaged in downstream petroleum business activities fall into ‘category D’.
The NNPC also stated that in accordance with the Public Procurement Act of 2007, all interested bidders seeking to be considered must satisfy statutory, financial, technical and business integrity requirements.
“Compliance with Nigerian Content Act shall also be a major consideration in the selection of applicants to lift Nigerian Crude Oil,” it said.
Interested companies must submit the mandatory details to the NNPC/NipeX tender process portal at SCMTenders@nipex.com.ng by 12:00 noon, September 16, 2020 to be eligible for the pre-qualification process.
