By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said it has received applications from 78 companies for the rehabilitation of its critical downstream pipelines, associated depots and terminal infrastructure.
Business Post had reported that NNPC was planning to engage private investors, under the Finance/Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model to rehabilitate the country’s dilapidated oil assets, including the four refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt.
One of the major assistance the federal government will need for the transformation of the infrastructures would be funds from the private sector. After revamping the assets, they will operate them for a period of time before being handed over to the government.
In a statement in Abuja, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, said the model became imperative in the NNPC’s journey to rehabilitate its downstream infrastructure which over time had become vulnerable, lost value and integrity due to age and incessant vandalism.
Mr Kyari stated that some of the assets were as old as 40 years and were long overdue for replacement.
“Some of these assets are as old as 40 years and they are due for replacement; and when you want to do a replacement of this scale, you do need a lot of resources.
“And we know that we require these assets so we decided that we bring in private partners who will fund these pipelines, they will construct it, they will operate it with us and then ultimately they will fully recover their investment from the tariff which we will pay for using these pipelines. And as soon as they recover their cost and their margin, they will hand over these assets back to us,” Mr Kyari said.
He explained that by the end of the first quarter of 2021, the final partners of the bid opening for investors interested in the downstream assets’ rehabilitation would be selected.
He also assured the bidders that the Nigerian Petroleum Exchange (NIPEX) portal, which was deployed for the pre-qualification exercise, was a time-tested technology that would not give room for any human indiscretion.
The NNPC chief insisted that the exercise was in fulfilment of agency’s avowed commitment to transparency and accountability as an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) partner company and as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari, that all its operations must be guided by integrity.
Also speaking, Chief Operating Officer, Downstream, Ms Lawrencia Ndupu, who was represented by the Managing Director, Petroleum Products Marketing Company, Mr Musa Lawan, said the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC) operates 5,120 length of pipelines which traverses the entire country with two coastal depots in Lagos and Calabar, assuring that the public bid opening processes is being done transparently.
Dipo Olowookere