Gas flaring: DPR drops 596 oil firms from pre-qualified bid round
A total of 596 oil firms have been dropped in the gas flare bid round as the race for commercialisation license hots up.
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), which declared this yesterday, maintained that only 254 out of 850 firms that showed interest in the bid round were pre-qualified.
Noting that it had mapped out 178 gas flare points in the Niger Delta, Director of DPR, Modecau Baba Ladan, maintained that about $1,000 each was slammed on the companies as fees for registration of interest.
This, New Telegraph learnt, amounts to $254,000 for the 254 pre-qualified firms.
The DPR, Ladan said, had commenced the evaluation of Statement of Qualification (SOQ) of these 254 companies who had showed interest in Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP).
Ladan, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Gas Monitoring and Regulation, Mr. Olusanya Bajomo, said at the opening ceremony of the pre-qualification exercise in Lagos, that committees, including the Proposal Evaluation Committee (PEC), International Observer Group (IOG), representatives of the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), NNPC, DPR and Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR), were set up to evaluate those companies that had indicated interest to participate in gas flare commercialization, which was instituted by the former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.
Bajomo said about 850 companies earlier showed interest when the advert was placed, but later dropped when a fee of $1,000 was attached to the application form and other processing documentation to know those who are serious.
He said: “The Nigerian Gas Commercialization Programme, which is government’s flagship programme that will create opportunity to take flared gas under the provision of Petroleum Act, also authorized gas commercialization through third party companies in order to promote investment and get people who are qualified technically, have the capability and experience to work in Niger Delta to harness gas flare to market.
“So, we are currently doing preliminary evaluation process that will see companies that qualify to the next stage,” he said.
SOURCE: punchng.com
