The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has begun the technical screening of financially qualified bidders for the 2024 licensing bid rounds.
At this stage, the commission will assess each company’s technical capacity to operate the oil blocks for which they have bid.
According to the commission’s publication, a total of 31 oil blocks are available, including 26 deep offshore blocks, three continental shelf blocks, and two onshore blocks.
Notably, 29 of these blocks are located in the Niger Delta region, while two are situated in the Bida Basin.
Providing an update on the exercise that began in May, the NUPRC announced that the Registration and Pre-qualification stage concluded on Friday, July 5.
The pre-qualification evaluation started on the same day, resulting in the shortlisting of successful bidders based on criteria such as financial capacity, technical competencies, health, safety and environmental standards, as well as legal and regulatory compliance.
Successful companies have since been notified of their status.
“The Pre-qualification Evaluation commenced the same day and was concluded on Sunday 7th July 2024. This led to the prequalification of successful bidders. The pre-qualification criteria were based on two main conditions – Financial Capacity and Viability and Technical Competencies of the companies. Other criteria considered were Health Safety and Environment (policy, statements, management system, certificates, records, etc) and Legal and Regulatory compliance of the companies.
“The commission has concluded the pre-qualification stage and the qualified companies have been notified in line with the guidelines,” the NUPRC said.
Currently, the exercise is in the technical and commercial bid phase, focusing on data access, data purchase, evaluation, and bid preparation and submission.
This is expected to last until November 29, 2024.
“Currently, the licence round is the Technical and Commercial Bid Phase for Data Access, Data Purchase, Evaluation, Bid Preparation and Submission which is expected to last until 29th November 2024. Thereafter, the Technical Bids will be evaluated and qualified technical companies will be notified on or by 9th December 2024 for submission of commercial bids,” the commission stated.
It was stated that the commercial bid phase will be open only to companies that have successfully passed the technical bid evaluation.
“The Commercial Bid Conference, which will signify the end of the bid rounds, will only involve companies that have passed the Technical Bid Evaluation in line with published evaluation criteria. The Preferred Bidders of any blocks on offer will emerge based on the set commercial criteria.
“All companies that submit commercial bid will be required to provide performance security in the form of a letter of credit or performance bond issued by a bank acceptable to the commission or parent company guarantee in an amount equivalent to 2.5 per cent of the work commitment upon the grant of the licence to guarantee the fulfilment of the minimum expenditure committed to the implementation of the work programme.
“Finally, the winner of a block will be presented for ministerial approval and thereafter contract negotiation,” the commission explained.
Recall the regulator recently excluded five oil blocks from the ongoing licensing round due to legal disputes. The affected assets include PPL3008, PPL3009, PML51, PPL267, and PPL268.
