Energy Ministry to rerun oil tender

Tender to build oil storage facilities in Tripoli cancelled due to conflicting asking prices

The Minister of Energy and Water Gebran Bassil has ordered the cancellation of a tender the ministry had pulled for the construction of 14 oil storage facilities in Tripoli with a total storage capacity of 428,000 cubic meters.

The tender was cancelled in order to make way for broader competition and in order to attain more precise standards and specifications at lower prices, an MoEW statement said.

According to the statement, six companies applied for the tender. BUTEC Lebanon made the best offer, with its asking price around $18 million less than the subsequent company. The MoEW said that BUTEC, chaired by Nizar Younes (shareholder), should have won the tender according to the rules of procedure. However, it said, “the huge inconsistency between the asking prices offered by the different candidates urged the ministry to consider unifying the standards and specifications through further studies in order to attain more reasoned offers.”

The MoEW said that it will inform the companies on the details and deadlines of the new tender once they are available.
The tender is only the first phase of a plan to increase the country’s oil storage capacity from the current 0.35 million cubic meters to 1.5 million cubic meters through restoring and upgrading the Zahrani and Tripoli oil storage facilities, and building new storage facilities at both locations.

The ministry had estimated the project's cost at $60 million. It said that it would be financed in part by the government and in part by the firm that would win the tender.