Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 05, 2020 News
By Kiana Wilburg
When the Energy Department had advertised a few months ago for Expressions of Interest (EOI) to market Guyana’s crude oil, it had asked all applicants to provide details of any pending litigation or to state if they are under investigation. What remains unclear however is if evidence pointing to a corrupt past would be seen as an immediate reason for disqualification.
Kaieteur News has reported extensively that of the 34 companies who responded to the EOI advertisement, almost half have had a well-documented history of being in some of the most corrupt trading schemes. Public documents show for example that three of them, some of the world’s largest commodities trading firms – Vitol SA, Glencore PLC, and Mercuria Energy Group –have used intermediaries to funnel over US$31 million in bribes to corrupt employees of Brazilian state oil firm, Petrobras. This was done in order to win massive contracts, along with acquiring other benefits, and resulted in one of the largest corruption scandals in recent history, the Operation Car Wash affair, the fallout of which was hundreds of indictments, and over a hundred corruption convictions including that of former President of Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva.
It is against this background that this newspaper asked Energy Department Head, Dr. Mark Bynoe, to state if a company’s sordid past would disqualify them from being able to trade on Guyana’s behalf, during an online press conference yesterday. Dr. Bynoe said that he would have to speak with his procurement officer on the subject and make subsequent contact on the advice received.
Further to this, he was asked to share details on who were the evaluators that would be instrumental in selecting the winning company. This was asked to ascertain the competence of the individuals and whether there were possible connections to who would be the eventual winner.
The official said, “…This is not something that the Department of Energy can speak to. What happens normally in a procurement process is that we will make a recommendation to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) and they will look at the evaluators and make a decision based on the names proposed. But I don’t know that it is common practice for the names of the individuals to be divulged at this stage…. I am not in a position to share those names and I would have to discuss it with NPTAB.”
When Kaieteur News had questioned NTPAB about the identities and qualifications of the evaluators last week, we were referred to the Department of Energy with the assurance that an answer would be provided during yesterday’s press conference.
Dr. Bynoe said after the 34 EOIs have been evaluated, 20 will be shortlisted to submit technical proposals along with a financial offer that would be on a fee per barrel basis. He said that those will then be assessed before a final firm is selected.
BIDDERS TO MARKET GUYANA’S CRUDE
1. Gunvor
2. Bonroy Tetchem Co Ltd & Guyana Crude Oil
3. China Offshore Oil Singapore Int’l PTE
4. Enteq Resources
5. MAB Oil Limited
6. Hartree Partners LP
7. Mercuria Energy Trading
8. Shell Western Supply and Trading
9. Sacoil Energy Equity Resources
10. Mercantile and Maritime
11. Unipec America
12. BP Products North America
13. ExxonMobil
14. PPT Energy Trading
15. BB Energy
16. Freepoint Commodities
17. Sinochem
18. Cathay Petroleum Int’l
19. Heritage Petroleum
20. Concord Energy
21. PetroCo Oil
22. Totsa Total Oil Trading
23. Lukoil Oil Trading and Litasco
24. Core Petroleum
25. AISAA Petroleum Shipping
26. Century Tamara Energy Services
27. PetroChina International Brazil
28. Gladius Commodities
29. Equinor
30. Vitol
31. Glencore
32. Petrobras Global Trading BV
33. Interchem PTE
34. Aramco Trading
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