Nigeria’s precarious financial situation may lighten up pretty soon as the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has officially announced the commencement of marginal fields bid rounds for 2020.
The flag-off of the 2020 marginal bid round comes amidst the country’s poor financial situation which has made the implementation of the 2020 budget a Herculean task for the present administration with capital and recurrent expenditures already slashed.
The commencement of the 2020 oil bid round is coming 18 years after the first one was conducted in 2002.
Prior to the official announcement, stakeholders in the country’s oil and gas industry have consistently urged the Federal Government to conduct an oil bid round for the purpose of raising revenue to fund some of its critical projects.
Civil Liberty Organisation in a recent stakeholders’ engagement also harped on the need to ensure transparency and not allow discretionary powers of the Minister in the process to ensure maximum benefits in the bid rounds.
The Department of Petroleum Resources, the implementing agency announced that the bid round exercise is open to indigenous companies and investors interested in participating in exploration and production business in Nigeria.
For the 2020 oil bid round exercise, DPR announced that a total of 57 fields located on land, swamp and shallow offshore terrains are on offer.
It added that the exercise which will be conducted electronically, will include expression of interest/registration, pre-qualification, technical and commercial bid submission and bid evaluation.
According to the DPR guidelines on the 2020 oil bid round exercise, and payment by interested bidders shall attract non-refundable chargeable fees as follows, Application fee of N2 million per field, Bid Processing Fee of N3million per field, Data prying fee of $15,000 per field, Data Leasing fee of $25,000 per field, Competent Persons Report of $50,000 and $25,000 for Fields Specific Report.
With the above, interested bidders are expected to pay a total of $115,000 in statutory fees and another N5 million in local currency.
At the official exchange rate of $360/$1, the 57 oil fields on offer gives N2,364,800,000 including the N5 million payment.
The agency added that all application fees and processing fees are expected to be paid into the Treasury Single Account (TSA) while Signature Bonuses are expected to be paid into the Federation Account.
Also, fees for data leasing, data prying, Competent Persons Report (CPR) and Field Specific Report should be paid into the National Data Repository (NDR) account for repayment.
According to the approved guidelines, applicants must show evidence of technical and managerial capability and must also demonstrate the ability to fully meet the objective of undertaking expeditious and efficient development of a Marginal Field.
