The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has shortlisted 78 companies to bid for the rehabilitation of oil pipelines and depot infrastructure across the country.
Over 300 companies applied through the official portal published in the national dailies on August 7 and only 78 companies met the expiration time of noon on September 18.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari, at the virtual public bid opening for the rehabilitation of the NNPC group downstream critical pipelines and associated depots/terminal infrastructure in Abuja yesterday, said the corporation was committed to transparency.
Kyari said that the process of selection of companies would be transparent and those who would win the bid would undergo a process of Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) system.
He said that President Muhammadu Buhari had mandated the corporation to ensure transparency and accountability in all its operations.
He said that this would help the NNPC to deliver its services to all stakeholders efficiently, especially to the ordinary Nigerians, adding that the management of the corporation had aligned to the order.
The GMD said that it was unfortunate that the oil pipelines deteriorated over the years with activities of hoodlums and vandals, forcing them to be under-utilised.
He assured that the technology that would not be compromised by vandals would be deployed by the selected companies for the rehabilitation.
“You know that this project requires huge finances. That is why we are adopting BOT. Pipelines globally are managed by the private sector. What we are doing today is in line with global best practices.
“The NNPC is challenged because of resources constraints. Today, we do not have all the resources required to reform this asset which has become so vulnerable and have lost their values and integrity over the time.
“Some of them are as old as 40 years. They are due for replacement, and when you want to do replacement of this scale, we do need a lot of resources.
