At least 50 companies are scrambling to provide sea worthy tug boats on charter time basis for the maritime operational requirements of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Lagos, Warri and Port Harcourt.
The public bid opening for the contract, which held at the NNPC Headquarters Abuja, had in attendance representatives of the bidding companies with officials of the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR; Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI; Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB; and some members of the civil society as observers.
NNPC said in statement on Sunday that successful companies would be engaged on a two year term contract in the first instance with an option of renewal for a further one year.
“Winners are expected to provide services, which include: aiding the berth and un-berth of all ships operating at the NNPC jetties/buoy, logistics support for safe ship-to-ship operations which covers movement of fenders, horses, documents, rigging and unrigging of fenders among others,” the statement read in part.
“The bid covered services like stand-by and positioning vessels at the Single Point Moring (SPM) buoy among other marine services,” it added. NNPC Group General Manager, Supply Chain Management, Shehu Liman, was quoted as saying the Maikanti Baru-led management is determined to instill and sustain the values of transparency, accountability and integrity in the procurement process.
He noted that apart from providing a level playing space for all stakeholders, the public bid exercise is in conformity with existing Federal Government legislation on procurement which is also in tune with the NNPC standing regulations on procurement to ensure transparency and fairness.
Declaring the event open, Group General Manager, Marine Logistics Division, NNPC, Dalhatu Makama, noted that the essence of the bid process was to ensure that companies with the requisite experience in maritime operations are given the opportunity to compete for the available service in a fair and transparent manner.
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Credit: All Africa
