By Adedapo Adesanya
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has disqualified some participating firms from the 2020 marginal fields bid round over their indebtedness to the federal government.
In a release, the agency said some firms would not be able to participate in the round as they were discovered to owe government debts which include non-payment of taxes, tariff, fees or other levies.
It also added that some of the bidding firms were disqualified because their respective directors are also directors in other companies that failed to pay statutory fees, adding that prequalification of such company would be on hold until such directors pay their debts.
It then stated that some firms that are yet to be prequalified for the next batch have a deadline set for Friday, July 24 to meet up with the requirements.
Once the pre-qualification hurdle has been passed, the DPR explained that the next steps would be the Data Prying, Leasing, and Purchase of Reports set to run from Monday, July 20 -August 30, 2020; and then submission of technical and financial bid slated between July 20 and August 30, 2020.
Earlier this month, the DPR said that over 600 companies applied to be prequalified for the bid rounds of 57 marginal oilfields in the country.
Nigeria last conducted marginal field bid rounds in 2003 and the ongoing exercise has attracted widespread interest because of the transparent and credible procedures put in place by the agency.
Marginal fields are smaller oil blocks that are typically developed by indigenous companies. The licensing round is the first marginal field round in seventeen years and the government hopes that the licensing round will stimulate further oil production growth and also bring in much-needed revenues from the licensing fees.
Dipo Olowookere