FPSO nightmare
ONGC is under fire for its “amateurish” tender to hire a Floating Production and Storage Offshore (FPSO) vessel for the D-1 field offshore Mumbai.
Criticism centres on a ‘convenience termination’ clause made public to interested contractors during a pre-bid on November 16 which allows ONGC to cancel the contract to build a 60,000 barrel capacity FPSO without warning and without giving any reason. “This clause is insane!” said one party.
“Does ONGC think anyone will accept a clause that allows it to cancel after $100m or $150m has been invested in the project by the contractor No bank or insurance company would touch such a project.” Another contractor criticised information in ONGC’s bid package as “not up to the mark” and incomplete.
“Much of the basic information was not there, not even FPSO coordinates,” he said. “ONGC is on a learning curve.
” To add to the confusion, ONGC doesn’t know for how long it wants to lease the FPSO: seven, nine or 13 years