*The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation says the exercise conforms to the mandate of the Federal Government to prioritise rehabilitation of critical downstream infrastructure across the country

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

Encouraged by the culture of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) of the current NNPC management, about 96 prominent and reputable companies from various jurisdictions have indicated interest in undertaking the rehabilitation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) downstream infrastructure.

These downstream infrastructure rehabilitation contracts range from critical pipelines to depots and terminals through the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) financing model.

Dr. Kennie Obateru, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, in a statement Thursday, January 14 in Abuja, FCT, noted this was disclosed at a virtual public bid opening exercise held at the NNPC Towers, Abuja, for the pre-qualification of companies for the contract.

The state oil firm stated that 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.

NNPC Pipelines in the Niger Delta

Mrs. Ada Oyetunde, Managing Director of the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC), disclosed at the event that the exercise was in conformity with the mandate of the Federal Government to prioritise the rehabilitation of critical downstream infrastructure across the country.

Oyetunde 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.

She stated: “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.”

The NPSC Chief 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.

Mrs. Aisha Katagum, Group General Manager, Supply Chain Management at NNPC, earlier had commended the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), and Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for providing guidance for the project.

Katagum assured the bidding firms of a fair, equitable and transparent selection process.

Highpoint of the event was the display of the 96 companies that submitted bids for the rehabilitation projects.

Representatives of the ICRC, BPP, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and Civil Liberties Organisations (CLOs) were available to observe proceedings at the public bid-opening exercise.