Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has asked Sui Southern Gas Company Limited Board of Directors to try and finalise their recommendations for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import so that it can be placed before the Federal Cabinet scheduled to meet on Wednesday, March 13, 2013. SSGC Board of Directors is expected to meet on Monday March 11, 2013 in this regard.
In the meantime, Chairman SSGC Wiqar Malik has reportedly resigned because he is already a Director on the Board of Engro Polymer - a sister concern - of one of the bidders in LNG tender citing conflict of interests. It is now upto the Directors to allow him to recuse himself from decision on LNG or accept his resignation.
Meanwhile, the legal Advisors Velani & Velani has advised London-based QED Consulting Limited that proposal from Elengy Terminal Pakistan Limited (ETPL) is not in conformity with Request For Proposal (RFP) floated by SSGC as it would require negotiating the price with the bidder ETPL of the price offered. Negotiations are not allowed of the price offered, says the legal advisor to QED - the London-based consultant to SSGC.
"RFP only contemplates negotiation with the selected bidder to finalise GSA (General Sales Agreement) based on relevant details in the technical proposal, that is primarily dealing with operational matters. RFP does not contemplate negotiation of the price offered." "Moreover, seeking clarification from ETPL will be unfair to other two bidders who have submitted bids according to the RFP and the SSGC Amendment/Clarification Letter."
Velani & Velani are of the opinion that price proposed by ETPL is conditional, while the price proposed by other two bidders (PGPL and GIEH) is unconditional. In other words, ETPL is non-compliant with the RFP. PGPL has offered 17.7074 dollars per MMTU for 400 mmscfd while GEIH offer was 18.16 dollars for the same - brent-based as per TFP as the base price.