*  NNPC GMD, Kachikwu 
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) has began the public opening of technical bids submitted by 91 companies to secure contract for the provision of Coastal and Bunkering Vessel Services.

 This is contained in a statement by NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division Mr Ohi Alegbe and made available to journalists  on Thursday.

 The statement said that the coastal and bunkering services was for the operations of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC.

 It said the exercise was conducted under the watch of representatives of the bidding companies, officials of Bureau of Public Procurement, (BPP) and the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, (NEITI) as independent assessors.

 The statement said that the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr Ibe Kachikwu expressed delight on the massive turn out of indigenous Nigerian companies and vessel owners in the bid process.

 According to the statement, Kachikwu said the entire bidding Process was going to be transparent.

 It said that NNPC was determined to get the best yield in terms of value addition and best services while also promoting the Nigerian local content .

 The statement added that the ongoing bid exercise sought to engage the services of reputable organisations with essentially three ranges of Deadweight Tonnage (DWT) 5, 000-8, 000 DWT, 10, 000- 20, 000 DWT and 25, 000-50, 000 DWT.

 It explained that the coastal vessel was designed to evacuate petroleum products from NNPC coastal refineries to various discharge
ports in Nigeria or outside Nigeria as may be designated by PPMC and undertake the delivery of petroleum products to water fed depots with restricted draft jetties of 6.0 to 11metres.

 It further said that thenvessels would conduct ship-to-ship transfer of cargo from import tankers and discharge same at waters depots among other functions .

 The statement further said that the desired bunkering vessel services would also entail the loading of Automated Gas Oil Ago and low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) from water-fed refineries for bunkering purposes.

 It said that the vessel would also supply bunkers to NNPC owned and chartered vessels as required on a monthly basis.

 It said other responsibilities of the vessel included the keeping of accurate accounts for AGO and LPFO loaded and supplied to NNPC Vessels as well as forwarding records of the bunkering activities to marine transport department of the PPMC on a monthly basis.