Like Port Harcourt, NNPC Seeks Private Firms To Operate Kaduna, Warri Refineries

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has again begun seeking reputable operations and maintenance companies to manage the Warri and Kaduna refineries.

The NNPC disclosed this in an ‘expression of interest’ post on its X handle on Friday, stating that it is seeking companies to operate and manage the refineries.

Recall that the company also made the same call in January 2024, seeking companies to operate and maintain the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC).

The Warri refinery, commissioned in 1978, has a nameplate distillation capacity of 125,000 barrels per day (bpd) while, the Kaduna refinery, commissioned in 1980, has an installed capacity of 50,000 bpd, which was later expanded to 110,000 bpd.

The NNPC’s move to transfer the operation of the refineries to private firms is seen as a departure from the earlier position of its group chief executive officer, Mele Kyari, that the refineries would become operational by the end of 2024. The company is seeking companies with a minimum average annual turnover of at least $2 billion for the financial years ending 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

“The O&M tender for WRPC and KRPC will be treated as a single tender through a three stage tender process (expression of interest, EOI, technical and commercial) leveraging on all the possible opportunity costs associated with procurement of consumables, personnel/manpower management, utilisation of computerised maintenance management software (CMMS), warehousing management system (WMS) etc,” the statement reads.

According to NNPC, the O&M contract scope of work will cover, but not be limited to the following: long-term and short-term production and operations planning, production and operations execution, monitoring, reporting and optimisation of operation, maintenance planning (short-term), maintenance execution, and reliability and inspection.

Others include process and controls engineering, quality control, quality assurance and laboratory, specialist engineering, health and safety, environmental management, turnaround maintenance planning and execution, minor projects, non-contractor management, subcontractor management, inventory, and warehouse management.

The oil firm said for any bidder to be eligible for the tender exercise, they are required to “fill out and submit mandatory details through this link http://forms.office.com/r/kjSyVwz3Eg on or before 12 midnight Thursday 12th September 2024”.

“Individual bidders would be duly notified on their registration in NNPC LTD/NipeX tender process portal,” the NNPC said.

“Thereafter the bidder would have access to make their submission on the NNPC LTD/NipeX tender process portal.

“All submission bids should be titled; EOI for the provision of operations and Maintenance (O&M) services for NNPC Limited Refining: Warri Refining and Petrochemical company (WRPC) and Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC).”

The oil company said applicants must present audited accounts for the past four years (2020 to 2023) that include balance sheet, income and cash flow statements.

“Provide evidence of your company’s latest credit ratings and the name of the rating agency,” the energy firm said.

“Demonstration of a minimum average annual turnover of at least $2 billion USD for the financial years ending: 2020, 2021, 2022, & 2023 respectively.”

The NNPC also said documents should be submitted online through the electronic NIPEX tender portal on or before 12 pm on September 26.

“The EOIs shall be opened virtually, following the deadline for EOIs submission at 12 noon Thursday 10th October 2024 using the Microsoft Teams,” the oil firm said.

“Bidders who have submitted their bids and external observers shall be invited to attend the virtual live stream bid opening session.”

In the event of any unscheduled holiday on the bid submission date, the NNPC said the new deadline for submission of bids will be on the next working day.

Also, the EOI closing date and time will be extended to the next working day and time, the oil company said.