On 31 January 2011, the State Agency for Investment and Management of the National Projects of Ukraine made available the Guidelines "On the Preparation of the Competitive Tender for the Feasibility Study for LNG Terminal".

The Agency is about to complete the steps to announce a competitive tender to develop a feasibility study for the national project "LNG terminal - marine terminal for receiving liquefied natural gas". Invitations to tender will be officially published in February 2011 following the results of upcoming public consultations.

The participants in the competitive tender will be invited to prepare a feasibility study in respect of  various potential locations of the LNG terminal on the Black Sea shoreline.

The competitive tender shall be carried out in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Public Procurement" dated 1 June 2010.

The main provisions of the competitive tender are supposed to be the following:

  • Tender documents will be developed in two languages: Ukrainian and English. If a non-resident entity submits a bid in English, it will need to translate it into Ukrainian. Translation must be legalised (apostilled) in accordance with international treaties between the country of the bidder and Ukraine.
  • Currency in which the participants are to submit their bids – Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH).
  • Amount of the deposit for participation in the tender will be set from UAH 300,000 to 600,000 (USD 37,780 – 75,560), which can be returned in accordance with Ukrainian law.
  • After the official announcement of the tender, the tender terms will be publicly available from the following sources:
    • official website of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine http://tender.me.gov.ua;
    • official website of the State Agency for Investments and Management of the National Projects of Ukraine http://ukrproject.gov.ua;
    • compliance officer, whose coordinates are to be specified in the tender documents.
  • The winning bidder will be paid out of the state budget, based on the provisions of the Budget Code of Ukraine;
  • There will be a set of qualification requirements that will require participants in the tender to disclose their prior experience in preparing and implementing similar feasibility studies for the construction of LNG terminals and the availability of qualified personnel who participated in these projects;
  • Domestic and foreign participants will be bidding on equal terms;
  • Under Ukrainian law, legal entities (including consortiums) and individuals (either resident or non-resident) may participate in the tender.  If a consortium is established outside of Ukraine, it must have the status of a legal entity under the jurisdiction of the country where it was established. The division of responsibilities among the members of the consortium is up to its parties;
  • The participants will have not less than 30 days to prepare and submit their bids after the official announcement of the tender;
  • Evaluation of the bids will carried out in accordance with the requirements of Paragraph 5 of Article 28 of the Law of Ukraine "On Public Procurement" (price offer, quality of services - experience and qualifications of staff, deadlines, payment terms, etc).

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The original publication date for this article was 01/02/2011.