- More companies owned or managed by women joined the race in an unprecedented gender-balance participation in Nigeria’s bid round history.
The Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Auwalu Sarki, has said that investors’ belief in tranparent process put in place by his agency for the 57 oilfields’ bid round was partly responsible for the spike in number of firms who have joined the race for the oil acreages.
Over 600 companies have, as at the last count, applied to be prequalified for the ongoing bid rounds in Nigeria’s 57 Marginal Fields, the first in almost 20 years.
Platforms Africa gathered exclusively that the number of companies owned or managed by women that joined the race is more compared to all the bid rounds in the history of the country’s marginal fields.
The Director has also promised that no one would be discriminated against based on gender, race, ethnicity or religion in the process.
Auwalu maintained that the processes have really witnessed an increase in bidders after the extension of the deadline to June 21. There has been almost 30 per cent increase in the participation.
He stated these during a television programme.
The Director said Nigeria’s last bid round for the marginal fields was in 2003, and also revealed that the bidding exercise has gained lots of interest due to the transparent process set up by the DPR.
”First I will say that we have really witnessed an increase in bidders after the extension of the deadline to June 21. There has been almost 30 per cent increase in the participation.
“If you are making a bid or auctioning any oil field, you need to get 10 people per field really going after the field. We have 57 fields and we have over 600 companies. So we can say that we are celebrating success so far.
“After the extension, we are moving according to schedule and now we are in the phase where we do pre-qualification for the bidders to apply. Everything is going perfectly.”
He said that the interest so far is good for Nigeria as it shows that there are companies ready to invest in Nigeria.