Jamaica shortlists LNG suppliers
Published:Wednesday | December 21, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Jamaica has shortlisted the companies qualified for the second round of bidding to supply liquefied natural gas, but has declined to name them.
The shortlist was culled from a field of six bids previously identified in November as Shell International Trading Middle East Limited based in Dubai; Pace Global, United States; Morgan Stanley, United States; Marubeni Corporation, Japan; Gas Natural Aprovisionamientos SDG SA of Spain, and Repsol Comercializadora de Gas SA, Spain.
"First of all, let me say that all the shortlisted bidders are extremely competent and credible LNG suppliers," said chairman of the LNG Steering Committee, Christopher Zacca.
"We have decided not to make the list public at this time out of an abundance of caution, in order to ensure that the entire two-step RFP process progresses to completion in a manner that encourages the greatest level of competition between bidders. We want bidders to give us their lowest price in the second round," he said.
The request for proposals, or RFPs, for the second bid round will be issued by the end of March, with a deadline of April for the shortlisted companies to submit their bids.
Companies notified
Zacca said the shortlisted companies have already been notified, but again he declined comment on the number of companies participating in the second round.
"I will only say that the shortlist has enough strong companies to ensure a robust and competitive bidding process in the second stage of the LNG Supply RFP," he said.
The LNG Steering Committee is now working with a deadline of mid-2014 to start importing LNG.
Separately, bids for construction of the LNG infrastructure - a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) to be developed at Port Esquivel in St Catherine - have been pushed back from January 13, 2012 to February 24, 2012.
Jamaica is expected to import about 830,000 metric tonnes of LNG in the first year of commissioning, equivalent to the demand of the bauxite and energy sectors. Jamaica Public Service is constructing a 360-megawatt LNG-fired plant in Old Harbour to be commissioned in 2014, assuming the Zacca-led LNG supply and insfrastructure projects meet their deadlines.
Exmar was initially selected to build the FRSU but the project was retendered after the Office of the Contractor General ruled that the process lacked fairness and transparency.