The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) has taken umbrage at criticisms of its prequalification of companies for the construction of the Wales natural gas plant, with officials saying that simply checking the board’s website and those of companies that bid would clear up any doubts.
“You have someone going bold in public to say that a company’s name was not submitted when a simple check with other companies or our website would clear that up. We don’t like that because image is everything,” an NPTAB official, who did not want to be named, told Stabroek News yesterday.
“Don’t take my word or don’t take [name of person] word. Check for yourself. We make it a duty to upload as soon tenders are opened. You know too that the media is there and representatives from companies, so to hear this now is another thing,” the upset official added.
The response by the NPTAB official came in the wake of a call from former Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson who last week said that there should be a full investigation into the operations of NPTAB.
To support his position, Patterson cited the pre-qualification of bidders for the Wales gas to shore project.
“The AFC calls on the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) to conduct a full investigation into the operations of the National Procurement Tender and Administration Board (NPTAB), special attention should be paid to the bid evaluation and contract award process. Commencing August 2020, several contract awards have caught the public’s attention, ranging from the award of a school in Region 10 to a company that has no track record in construction, in fact, the principals of the company are better known for the promotion of sporting and entertaining events,” Patterson said.
“…The AFC invites the general public to pay keen attention to the tender process for the Gas to Energy project. In January 2022, NPTAB received 12 pre-qualification bids for the Gas to Energy project. At yesterday’s tender opening, companies that did not participate in the January 2022 pre-qualification process had submitted bids – it would be of interest to see the final award,” he added.
This newspaper had reported from a Department of Public Information release back in January that twelve companies had submitted information to NPTAB for pre-qualification for the project.
However, according to the minutes of NPTAB’s website, 21 companies had submitted documents. They were: Black & Veatch, Amerapex, NGC Group Trinidad & Tobago, China Machinery Engineering, SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction, CH4 Guyana-Lindsayca, China Energy International Guyana, Apan Energy, Wison Offshore & Marine, Construtora Queiroz Galvão, and Tecnicas Reunidas.
In addition, there were Power China International Group, Gaico Myer Hargrove, Mitsubishi Power, Bechtel Oil Gas & Chemicals, McDermott, Aggreko, ProMan Global Development, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, Consortium Plexa-DVSANTOS and GuyCan Consortium.
On Tuesday, the Stabroek News reported that five international companies have submitted bids to build the proposed natural gas-fired power plant at Wales.
Guycan Consortium ($549,088,000 USD), China Energy Int’l Gr. Co Ltd. ($466,649,772 USD), China Machinery Engineering Inc., ($696,001,776 USD), Power China Int’l Group Ltd. ($703,652,256 USD) and Lindsayca Inc. & CH4 Guyana Inc. ($898,764,244 USD) are the bidders.
Already, ExxonMobil affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), has made a contingent award of the contract for the construction of the pipeline to the Subsea 7 and Van Oord consortium.
It also awarded a contract to TechnipFMC to provide engineering, procurement, construction and installation of subsea risers and pipelines once the project gets the green light.
The pipeline is expected to land at Crane/Nouvelle Flanders, West Coast Demerara and make its way to Wales on the West Bank of the Demerara.
EEPGL has said that the project will involve capturing associated gas produced from crude oil production operations on the Liza Phase 1 (Destiny) and Liza Phase 2 (Unity) Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessels, transporting approximately 50 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd; 1.4 million standard cubic meters per day [MMsm3/d]) of rich gas via a subsea pipeline and then an onshore pipeline to a natural gas liquids (NGL) processing plant (NGL Plant), treating the gas to remove NGLs for sale to third parties, and ultimately delivering dry gas meeting government specifications for use at the power plant.
