The PPP/C government has scrapped the shortlist of 19 companies that had submitted proposals to sell Guyana’s portion of oil from the Liza-1 well and yesterday launched a new Request For Proposals (RFP).
In a two-page advertisement in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, pages 20-21, the Ministry of Natural Resources advertised for RFPs for the provision of marketing services for Guyana’s oil entitlement from the Liza Destiny FPSO vessel.
“Co-operative Republic of Guyana, Ministry of Natural Resources, Department of Energy- Request for Proposals(RFP) (Without Prequalification) Non-consultancy services,” the ad states. It notes that the RFP document can be downloaded from the Office of the President and Department of Energy websites from today.
Of note, when compared to the last advertisement which drew 34 bidders, was that the clause that there would be no face-to-face meetings is no longer there. It was also stated in the first invitation that companies would have been evaluated in accordance with the procedures set out in the submission of a technical expression of interest (EoI), evaluation of the EoI and creation of a shortlist and that only shortlisted companies would be invited to submit full technical and commercial proposals. However, this time around, that aspect has also been omitted.
Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat told Stabroek News yesterday that the 19 shortlisted and the overall 34 companies that participated in the first process are free to resubmit proposals.
“They can resubmit. We have nothing against them. It is a different administration, we have more transparency in the process and had signalled before that it would be retendered,” he said.
It was Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo who last week announced that the new government would go to a retendering. He explained that the decision was made to give companies that had not submitted a proposal a chance to do so as some may have withheld on the grounds that when the tenders were first advertised it was under a caretaker government.
The Minister of Natural Resources reiterated this position as he informed that an independent team will be established to review the bids. “We will set up an independent team of professionals to review when the bids come in, not the Minister or Vice President…,” Bharrat said.
And for companies around the world that may have complained of the novel coronavirus’ impact on courier and other services, the Minister said that a one-month period has been given to cater for that, as he pointed out that some companies also have local agents here. The deadline for submissions is by 9:00 am Guyana time on Tuesday, September 22nd 2020.
In late June, the Ministry of the Presidency had announced that nineteen companies had been shortlisted from the 34 that last April had expressed interest in marketing Guyana’s share of oil from the Exxon-operated Liza Destiny FPSO in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana.
It was after two extensions – one due to a flurry of questions over the process and the other to accommodate the disruption of global courier services due to COVID-19 – that the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board in April received EoIs from the 34 companies.
ExxonMobil, which is the Stabroek Block operator, and Shell Western Supply and Trading Ltd were among those shortlisted. Shell Western currently has a contract to sell this country’s first three million barrels of crude.
Completed
The Minister of Natural Resources yesterday also informed that the last of the first three lifts of one million barrels each was completed last week. Two more lifts are due to Guyana this year.
The monies received from the last lift will be deposited into Guyana’s Natural Resource Fund one month from last week’s lift completion date.
Guyana’s next lift, the Minister said will be in mid-November and explained that the evaluation process for the new tender “will take about six weeks”.
The Department of Energy had told this newspaper last month that approximately 12.686 million barrels of oil have been produced from the Stabroek Block as of June 30, 2020.
