The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Thursday, said 96 prominent and reputable companies from various jurisdictions across the country have indicated an interest in undertaking the rehabilitation of its downstream infrastructure.

These include critical pipelines to depots and terminals through the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) financing model.

The Managing Director, Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC), Mrs Ada Oyetunde, disclosed this at a virtual public bid opening exercise held at the NNPC Towers, Abuja for the pre-qualification of companies for the contract.

According to her, the facilities to be rehabilitated by successful bidders will include critical pipelines for crude oil supply to the refineries and evacuation of refined products, depots, and terminals.

She stressed 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,” she stated.

In her explanations, she further stated 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. (Nigerian Tribune)

Update news