Questions have arisen as to why nine months after State-owned Petrotrin invited applicants to pre-qualify for a US$200 million offshore processing facility for west and south west Soldado, eligible companies have not been invited to submit bids for the project. While Petrotrin is insisting the pre-qualifying process is still underway, insiders told T&T Guardian two companies-IAL Engineering Services (IAL) and TOSL Engineering Ltd (TOSL)-met the criteria ahead of other companies a long time ago.
The non-refundable US$1000 pre-qualifying package for build, own, operate and transfer of the offshore facility was advertised in November last year. Interested applicants were asked to submit all pre-qualifying documents on or before January 10. The offshore facility is expected to process gross production fluids of gas in accordance with applicable legislation and international best practice.
Petrotrin also invited applicants to submit bids for the temporary offshore production and compression facility for west and south west Soldado. The temporary contract was awarded to Spanish firm Maritima de Ecologia (Marecsa) on March 8. As part of the evaluation criteria for the permanent facility, suitably qualified applicants were asked to submit a letter of comfort from a financial institution to the tune of US$200 million to ensure financing of the project. T&T Guardian learned IAL and TOSL were the only two companies who were able to guarantee the financing.
However, to date neither company has been invited to bid for construction of the oil platform. Former Energy Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan had boasted about the project being one of the progressive developments under the People's Partnership (PP) at the World National Oil Companies Congress Grand St Paul's Conference Centre in London last year.
Word is that since then top financiers of the PP have expressed an interest in the project. "The pre-qualifying process started since earlier this year for the permanent and temporary platforms. They awarded the temporary offshore project and it is supposed to be delivered at the end of October. They asked for two letters for $US200 million and IAL and TOSL were the only companies that were able to meet the financial requirement. "All records and letters were submitted more than eight months ago but an invitation to bid has not gone out. The unanswered question is why weren't IAL and TOSL invited to bid," a source close to the projects said.
Officials from IAL and TOSL declined to comment on the matter when contacted on Tuesday. And while Petrotrin attempted to shed some light on the matter, there are still many open gaps. Manager of corporate communications Gillian Friday did not deny that IAL and TOSL met the financial requisite for the project. In an e-mail response, Friday said two documents were issued publicly by Petrotrin in November 2011
"This facility will eventually replace the temporary facility. The project scope is to build, operate, own and transfer (BOOT) the permanent offshore production and compression facility for west and south west Soldado. The pre-qualification exercise is currently underway," she said.
Friday said neither IAL or TOSL was successful in their bids for the first tender. She could not say whether the companies met the criteria for the permanent facility: " It was currently under evaluation." Pressed as to whether a letter of comfort from a financial institution for US $200 million is still a requirement, Friday would say only: "There are pre-determined evaluation criteria for all our major projects that include stipulated financial requirements. These remain unchanged."