The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has scheduled a Bidders’ Conference/Investors Forum in furtherance of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP).
Mr Gbenga Komolafe, Commission Chief Executive, NUPRC said in a statement on Tuesday the conference would offer stakeholders and investors in upstream petroleum sector the opportunity to seek clarifications on the programme.
The conference, scheduled for Feb. 2, 2023 in Abuja would be coming barely a month after a similar conference was held in Lagos on Jan. 16, 2023 for interested stakeholders and investors in the proposed mini bid round for deep offshore oil fields.
Komolafe said participants in the forum would include qualified applicants, financiers, technology providers, equipment manufacturers, service providers, funders, and other interested entities.
The conference, programmed as a hybrid event with a virtual option will also facilitate engagements of qualified applicants with technology providers, prospective lenders, finance institutions; as well as foster business relationships and partnerships for the overall Programme success.
According to the CCE, the NUPRC in Aug. 2022, re-launched the NGFCP 2022 to drive Nigeria’s commitment to end routine gas flaring within the decade, support the imperatives of the Nigeria Energy Transition Plan (ETP) and create value from waste.
He said NGFCP 2022 was restructured to reflect current gas flaring situation, prevailing operational realities in the industry, and changes in the socio-economic landscape due to the passage of time since the NGFCP was originally conceived in alignment with the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 (PIA).
“The NGFCP 2022 is therefore modified to deliver end-to-end value from flare gas commercialisation to both existing and new participants.
“In accordance with Section 105 (2) of the PIA and similar provisions enabling the Commission in that respect, the Commission commenced the Request for Qualification (RFQ) stage of the NGFCP 2022.
“This was through the issuance of Statement of Qualification (SOQ) to enable existing applicants to validate their status and for new investors to register to participate through the NGFCP website/ portal.
“The NGFCP 2022 recorded significant interest from stakeholders including existing participants, new investors, multi-lateral institutions, equipment manufacturers and the wider investment communities, both domestic and international.
“As at the SOQ submission deadline, three hundred (300) companies/entities had registered their interest to either revalidate their prequalification status as existing participants or submit Statement of Qualification (SOQ) as new participants.
“Also, in line with the provisions of the RFQ, the SOQ evaluation exercise was conducted by the Commission where in a total of 139 applicants were deemed successful and awarded the Qualified Applicant status,” he said.
To that end, and in reliance on Section 105 (2) of the PIA and similar provisions enabling the Commission in that respect, he said the Commission had published the list of Qualified Applicants who will proceed to the Request for Proposal (RFP) phase of the NGFCP 2022.
He further said details of the SOQ evaluation exercise could be accessed on the NUPRC Website and NGFCP Portal via www.nuprc.gov.ng and ngfcp.nuprc.gov.ng, respectively.
