Still without a regular marketer for oil since production began in December 2019, Guyana has for the third time tendered in its search but this time has not made the requirements public or stated for how long the service will be needed.
Instead, interested bidders have to write government to ask for information on how to bid, although it is stated that bids will close on August 3rd of this year. The new process raises transparency questions on commitments from the Irfaan Ali-led PPP/C government.
“The Ministry of Natural Resources, herein referred to as “the Procuring Entity”, invites eligible bidders to submit their bids for execution of the Provision of Marketing Services for the Cooperative Republic of Guyana’s oil Entitlement from the Liza Destiny FPSO Vessel,” a notice posted on the 8th of July on the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) website states.
“The objective of this assignment is to competitively market and maximize the value of the Government’s crude oil entitlement from Liza Destiny FPSO in the Stabroek Block and create a competitive market for the Liza Blend. Interested bidders may obtain further information by email at jmckenzie@nre.gov.gy,” it adds while it also listed the 96 Duke Street, Kingston address that persons can write.
Bidders were informed that their tenders will be opened at 9 on the morning of August 3rd 2021.
It is unclear why a process to withhold the requirements was chosen and several calls to Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat yesterday went unanswered.
After months of questioning by Stabroek News for an update and repeatedly failing to fulfill commitments to shed light on the outcome of the process to select a marketer and on the current sales regime being used for this country’s oil lifts, MNR would only say last month that that it would inform on a decision when one was made.
In February this year, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had announced that the government believed that a “nonsensical” inclusion for evaluation of the tender set by the former APNU+AFC administration as part of the criteria for bidders wanting to market Guyana’s oil, led to 28 of 29 companies being deemed non-responsive. At that time he said that government was considering the removal of the criterion and asking all companies that submitted proposals to resubmit their documents.
However, nothing had been said on what was done since then and if the idea mentioned by Jagdeo was pursued. No notice to this effect was seen by this newspaper in print or other media until last Thursday’s notice.
In May, Jagdeo was asked for an update and said that while he did not have the information at hand, he would ask the Ministry of Natural Resources to make it available and to post the information on its website for easy access.
Since then, this newspaper has been repeatedly seeking an update to no avail.
Minister of Natural Resources Bharrat was contacted several times. On one occasion he had said he would provide the information later on the same day. On another occasion he said that he was at Cabinet. On yet another occasion he said he would ask his “PR guys” to prepare a response.
When the ministry’s Public Relations Officer Stephon Gabriel was contacted about the minister’s reply, he did not give any information but said that he was assuring that “we will update once the reviews and analysis have been completed”
Told of this response and if that was all that would be said on the matter, Bharrat repeated, “We will keep you updated”.
Arrangements for the marketer seem to have been complicated by the fact that the government here is pursuing talks with India for New Delhi to purchase Guyana’s share of the oil from the Liza-1 platform. One million barrels of Guyana’s crude was recently lifted by the Indian Oil Corporation and is set to arrive in India on August 6th .
While in opposition the PPP/C had been heavily critical of the former APNU+AFC’s administration handling of issues relating to the oil and gas sector and secrecy on decisions made in the sector.
On December 27, 2019, then Opposition Leader Jagdeo had severely criticised a plan by the APNU+AFC Department of Energy to invite companies here to bid for the marketing of Guyana’s first three lifts of one million barrels of oil. Jagdeo had said that that plan was in breach of the country’s procurement law.
After it took office last year August, the PPP/C had announced that it had scrapped the shortlist of 19 prospective marketers from the 34 that had participated in the first process under the APNU+AFC government in April 2020, while the country was in the middle of a political crisis and awaiting results of the March 2 general elections. The process the PPP/C chose saw the omission of a prequalification phase.
