Tenders NEWS

China’s Sinopec Corp has awarded a 10 year tender to buy 1 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year from Qatargas. The tender was issued in the month of July, and the supply starts in 2023. Despite the global supply and the COVID -19 pandemic, Qatar’s exports were slightly higher this year as compared with the same period last year.

Sonangol yesterday informed about opening up a public tender to sell out its stakes in some private firms. The move comes as Angola's government looks to privatize key state assets by 2022. It will divest 30% interest in Petromar, Sonadiets Ltd and Sonadiets Services SA, 51% in Sonatide Marine Ltd and Sonatide Marine Angola Ltd and 40% in Sonamet Industrial SA and Sonacergy Services and Construction Petroleum Ltd.

The state oil company of Nigeria, NNPC has informed that following the tender lead, 15 companies have won the right to swap the nation’s crude oil for fuels. Currently, Nigeria is solely reliant on imported fuel. The firm also said that the comapnies that have won are a consortium of 15 companies including Vitol [VITOLV.UL], Trafigura [TRAFGF.UL], oil major BP and local downstream companies.

Bulgarian state network operator, Bulgartransgaz yesterday said that a tender for building the natural gas pipeline across Bulgaria was awarded to a consortium led by Saudi’s Arkad Engineering. The consortium, which includes the joint venture between Arkad and ABB, offered to construct the 474-km pipeline by the end of 2020 for $1.24 billion. The offer also included another option of completing the pipeline in 8 months for 1.29 billion euros.

World’s largest oilfield services provider, Schlumberger has been reportedly seeking a number of deviations from the original bidding norms of the ONGC tender for the Geleki field. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that the US-based firm is projecting a decline of 26-27% in base production in upcoming years. Schlumberger is seeking several deviations in tender norms for instilling technology to hike output over the reduced base production.

The Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry floated tenders for six oil and gas blocks were floated yesterday. The blocks on auction are South Jambi B, Makassar Strait, Selatpanjang in Riau, Banyumas, Andika Bumi Kita and South East Mahakam. The ministry priced the bidding document at $5,000.While the bidding submission deadline for onstream blocks is Dec 12th, bids for the exploration blocks will have to be submitted by Dec 10th.

According to a Reuters report, the South Korean power company, KOMIPO is looking for the delivery of LNG cargo between November 16 and 21 through a tender whose end date is July 24. In another report of Reuters, it was mentioned that the LNG imports of South Korea which climbed up significantly in the first half of the year due to the demand from power firms are likely to set at ease.

A source close to the Indonesian oil giant, Pertamina revealed that the company has kept the August import quota of gasoline to about 10 million barrels, unchanged from July. The company is facing problems in achieving target prices and recently canceled a tender that necessitated 500,000 barrels of 92 RON gasoline. Pertamina has sought a total volume of 1.3 million barrels of gasoline for August loading and delivery.

Myanmar’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MOEE) on Friday announced that the tenders for the country’s offshore oil and gas production will be floated by the end of this year. Though international oil and gas companies will have access to the tender rounds, the rule that necessitates them to partner with local players for operations will most likely be relaxed. Myanmar presently holds 53 onshore blocks and 51 offshore blocks.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) yesterday dismissed an allegation made against Indian oil firms – BPCL, IOCL, and HPCL – pertaining to unfair business practices. The unidentified complainants had blamed the oil majors of putting on anti-competitive terms in the notice seeking tenders floated "identically/ jointly/ parallelly" in different states. Concerns were also raised on the introduction of an identical price band within which bidders were forced to quote.

In a significant move, government tenders worth Rs.13,000 cr have been either withdrawn or cancelled after the Indian Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) stepped in to align their conditions with the Make In India program. Owing to serious concerns regarding discrimination against the domestic manufacturers and suppliers, the DIPP has asked for immediate issuance of guidelines relating to declarations of items with sufficient local capacity, domestic content.