Lagos — The Nigeria Agip Oil Company Limited says it is ready to pre-qualify contractors for the development of its 500-Mega Watt thermal plant, according to an announcement placed by the company, Tuesday.
The plant is to be located at Kwale-Okpai, in Delta State. It will utilise associated gas from Agip's crude production, and will thus help the company achieve its zero-gas flaring policy.
The announcement identifies five areas for the pre-qualification of contractors. These are: supply and laying of Kwale-Okpai Fuel Gas Pipeline; supply and installation of high voltage electric overhead line from Okpai Power plant to Onitsha, and Engineering, Procurement, and Construction of 500 MMe combined Cycle power generation plant in Okpai.
Others are supply of two 140-160 MWe gas turbines and electric generators (alternative: three 100-120 MWe gas turbines), and project management services.
The 500 MW to be generated by the plant will be supplied to the Nigerian Electric Power Authority (NEPA), whose weak generating and transmission capabilities have led to a perpetually irregular power supply in Nigeria.
Although Nigeria has an installed generating capacity of about 6,000 MW of power, current output is about 2,000 MW. There are doubts over the government's promise to raise the level of power generation to 4,000 MW by the end of this year.
Agip's power project is the first among expected independent power projects that are planned to supplement NEPA's unreliable supply. In Lagos State, the State government and Enron, an American company, have also embarked on a similar project. After many months of delay with questions raised about inter-connectivity, integration of the project into the national grid has commenced.
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Agip and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Phillips Oil, its venture partners, are funding the project, which is expected to cost $300 million.
Last February, Agip, NNPC, the Federal Ministries of Finance, and Power and Steel signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the establishment of the project.
Interested companies are expected to submit their pre-qualification documents within four weeks from the day of the publication of the ad, the ad said.
The ad says interested parties must provide a list of technical competencies, as well as evidences of relevant and verifiable experiences, and list of clients.
Such companies must also demonstrate a formalized quality system complying with the requirements of EN-ISO 9001, good health, safety and environment policy and program; community relations proposal; and good financial standing.
Interested companies are advised to send their pre-qualification documents to:
The General Manager,
Nigeria Agip Oil Company Limited,
Mile 4, Ikwere Road,
PO Box 923,
Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
