The Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), an upstream subsidiary company of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has awarded a $93million contract to a firm, Verteville Limited without adherence to the nation’s Public Procurement Act, which is a violation of extant rules.
The contract was for the rehabilitation of Floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) mystras gas comprehension system (Mystras gas handling facilities) and turbine B&C for gaslift/export and power generation respectively in OML 119.
The OML 119 (formerly OPL 091) is located on the continental shelf approximately 50km from the Nigerian coast in water depths between 60-97 metres.
It has a total acreage size of 715km and was inherited from the defunct Exploration and Exploitation Division of NNPC with two commercial fields (Okono and Okpoho) discovered, developed, and they are producing.
NNPC discovered the two fields in 1983 and 1978 through Okono-1 and Okpoho-1 &2 wells respectively.
Speaking with SaharaReporters, some NPDC staff members said the contract was done in secret and characterised by fraud.
They added that the company awarded the contract, Verteville Limited, could not embark on such a project.
“Number one, the award of the contract was done in violation of the Public Procurement Act, which is the statutory rule guiding how public contracts and services are awarded,” a staff member told SaharaReporters.
“Engr. Adokiye Tornbormieye, the Chief Operating Officer, upstream and his boss, Kyari Mele are just using all avenues to steal all the monies from NPDC.
“Imagine, they just awarded the project to Verteville with no procurement process done at $93m, so sad.”
A copy of the contract obtained by SaharaReporters reads, “The entire work scope will be delivered in forty-eight (48) work packages structured into nine (9) workgroups that will run in three phases. There shall be implementation overlaps of work packages across workgroups during the three phases of the project.
“The funding for the project will be drawn from two major sources as follows: one, $300million being a portion of the $1billion Project Eagle Loan is ring-fenced and dedicated to OML 119 redevelopment and two, the remaining balance of $126.7million will be financed from NPDC’s consolidated free cash flow…”
