ABG price bid not opened in ONGC rig tender
ABG Shipyard looks to have failed this month in its attempt to win an ONGC tender to hire three new generation jack-up rigs, despite support from the highest echelons of ONGC.
PETROWATCH learns ONGC opened price bids on September 16, but did not open ABG’s bid. Greatship emerged as the lowest bidder, with Jindal Drilling coming second.
A source at Mumbai-based ABG confirms it had re-submitted technical clarifications in July as requested by ONGC. “The technical and commercial terms were all clear and okay,” says ABG.
“But there were some legal issues due to which our bids were not opened.” ABG stresses, however, that it has not been formally disqualified from the race to win ONGC’s tender to hire three independent leg 300-feet/350-feet cantilever jack-ups for five years to work offshore Mumbai.
Four rigs are now on offer. Greatship offered Hull no.
117/275 at $133,483/day, which is currently under construction at the Lamprell yard in Sharjah. Jindal Drilling offered three rigs at $155,380/day: Virtue-1, Jindal Star and Hull no.
116/278. Another bidder Hallworthy had been disqualified in May as the yard building its Vivekanand-1 rig did not have the construction experience required by bid criteria.
ABG was previously disqualified for failing to meet the bid criteria and for arbitrarily modifying technical specifications. It also failed to provide a certified construction and delivery schedule or a vessel construction agreement, nor a certificate from underwriters Noble Denton proving its rigs could operate in Indian waters.