By Akpelu Paul Kelechi, in Abuja
The Nigerian Government has extended the submission date for the first step of the licencing round for uptake of flare gas sites in the country.
The submission deadline for Registration and Submission of Statement of Qualification (SOQ) for the Request for Qualification (RfQ), for the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme (NGFCP), was Sunday, January 20, 2019.
That milestone has been extended to Thursday, February 28, 2019, according to Justice O. Derefaka, who is the Programme Manager of the programme (NGFCP).
He added that he would provide further details, (notably about how that shift affects the other milestones).
The other milestones of the NGFCP include the Shortlist of Qualified Applicants, which was to end by March 31, 2019; Issue of Request for Proposal (RFP), which was limited to first quarter of 2019; Submission of Proposals and Selection of Preferred Bidders, both of which were not expected to last beyond the end of September 30, 2019.
Would be bidders have been hoping for postponement of the submission deadline, largely because the first announcement of the licencing round came in during the last six weeks of 2018.
The Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme is the first auction targeted at licencing of subsurface hydrocarbon property in 11. Years. It is not a conventional licencing round. It is for uptake of natural gas that is currently being flared in hundreds of sites in the country’s Niger Delta basin.
The government expects licence winners to take over the flare sites, monetize the molecules and boost the micro and macro economy in the process.
“The auction presents a significant opportunity for domestic and international developers alike to participate in the largest market driven flare gas monetization program undertaken on this scale globally”, Mr.Derefaka had declared in earlier statements.
“Bidders will have flexibility of choosing which flare site(s) to bid for, determine the gas price, and their end – use market or gas product, as well as the technology to be deployed. Interested parties will need to demonstrate project development experience and proposed proven technology which we expect to be in commercial application. Additionally, parties will need to demonstrate technical and commercial capacity. Successful bidders will be granted title to the flare gas through a gas sales/supply agreement with the Federal Government of Nigeria.
An interested party (applicant) is not required to be a Nigerian entity in order to submit its SOQ. Following a successful bid, each Preferred Bidder will be required to act through or establish a Nigerian corporate entity, which will enter into the necessary Commercial Agreements.
Applicants may come from a variety of backgrounds including but not limited to:
- Communities
- Technology providers
- project developers
- resource and energy companies
- industrial companies
- infrastructure companies
- financial investors/lenders
It is important to note that ONLY registered parties on the Programme web portal can participate in the NGFCP bidding process.
See the link below for Registration/Expression of Interest (EoI) on the NGFCP web portal:
NGFCP Registration/Expression of Interest (EoI)
It is also important to note that the interface by those interested in the Programme with the NGFCP will be through the portal ONLY, Derfaka says.
“ALL registered parties are notified to download the Request for Qualifications (RfQ), to submit their statements of qualification (SOQs) for participation on the programme as well as download the Programme Information Memorandum (PIM) from our website. Parties will only have access to relevant programme documents from the NGFCP Portal using its Log on details.
For any inquiries, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section on the NGFCP portal or kindly send an e-mail to us via: info@ngfcp.gov.ng”, declares the statement from the Nigerian Ministry of Petroleum, which is also coordinated by the contry’s industry regulator: the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
