Technical, Legal and Commercial Support and Training Consultancy Services for Private-investment-enabling Oil & Gas Sector Reforms

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

CONSULTING SERVICES – FIRMS SELECTION

Procuring Entity: Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MOMP)       

Project Name: Afghanistan Gas Project (AGASP)

Project ID No.: P172109

Grant No: IDA-D5210

Assignment Title: Technical, Legal and Commercial Support and Training Consultancy Services for Private-investment-enabling Oil & Gas Sector Reforms

MoMP Reference No: AF-MoMP-201738-CS-QCBS

 NPA Reference No:   NPA/MoMP/99/CS-7288/QCBS

Contract Duration: 36 Months

Country: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

1. The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of the Afghanistan Gas Project (AGASP) and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services.
2. The objective of the assignment is to provide Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) and the Afghanistan Oil & Gas Regulatory Agency (AOGRA) with the necessary specialized technical, legal and commercial support and training to build and gradually consolidate a resilient and sustainable private investment enabling institutional, contractual and regulatory framework for oil & gas sector development by (a) establishing an efficient institutional capacity to effectively guide, promote, manage and regulate sector development to international standards; (b) successfully preparing, evaluating and implementing competitive international tenders to be conducted, first, for the exploration and development of the Amu Darya basin (Totimaidan gas block) (proposed for Q3 or Q4 2021), and second, for a next round of exploration and development contract awards (proposed for Q3 or Q4 2023); and (c)  preparing, evaluating and implementing geological surveys, airborne gravity and magnetic surveys, seismic surveys, reservoir assessments and evaluations, reservoir development plans, etc.

The agreed scope of work in the attached final ToRs includes three components:

• Executive Baseline Assessment and Recommendations (legal, regulatory, contractual)
• Implementation of Recommendations (including implementation of international tender processes)
• Strengthening Capacity (on-the-job capacity building for MOMP an AOGRA)

1. For information on the scope of the services, you can access the ToR under the above-mentioned assignment title and reference number on the following website: www.ageops.net,  www.momp.gov.af
2. National Procurement Authority on behalf of Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP)) now invites eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services.

The short-listing criteria are:

1. The Consultant should be a registered legal entity and should have been in business for the last 10 years in providing Consultancy Services or related assignments. (The consultant is required to provide a copy of Certificate of Incorporation issued by the relevant authority in the country of its establishment/incorporation).
2. The Consultant shall demonstrate having sound financial standing by submitting audited financial reports or any other credible financial documents for the last five years (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018,2019) where the consultant’s annual turnover for any of the last five years shall be 5,000,000 Five Million USD and its Net Worth shall be positive (the consultant is required to provide audit Annual Financial Statements for said years, which inter alia, should reflect the Consultant’s Net Worth and turnover).
3. The Consultant should have relevant prior experience, of at least one Contract with the value of USD 3,000,000 (Three Million USD), has carried out during last 5 years, in the provision of expert/specialized support to: I. conducts an executive assessment of technical, legal, institutional, contractual, and regulatory framework for oil and gas, mining or energy sector development; II. Address any technical, legal, commercial, and financial gaps identified in (I) above and II. strengthening institutional capacity; the variance in similarity and complexity of the assignment(s) could be assessed reasonably and accepted by the Client. The Consultant shall provide evidence of a similar Contract (as per Section 3) for indicating the duration, value, and years of performance, which should showcase the expertise/strength of the consultant for undertaking such assignments.

The Consultant while describing the assignment(s) for similar experience should furnish the     following details: 

• Consultant should explain in what way the executed assignment(s) was/were similar in nature to the current assignment.
• The Consultant should explain the exact role played by the Consultant in the assignment if the assignment was carried out in association with other firms as JV or in sub-consultancy for carrying out the assignment.
• The firm should provide a similar experience copy of the contract agreement.

            Note: The Client will reasonably assess the similarity of the services.

Key Experts will not be evaluated at the shortlisting stage.

1. Consultants may associate with other firms to enhance their qualifications but should indicate clearly whether the association is in the form of a joint venture and/or a sub-consultancy. In the case of a joint venture, all the partners in the joint venture shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire contract, if selected. The requirements for Consultants who intend to associate with other firm(s) in the form of a Joint Venture (JV) or Consortium or a sub-consultancy to enhance their qualifications are indicated as under:
2. 1. The lead partner is required to be identified clearly and state the composition and nature of their association (JV/ sub-consultant) in their EOI.
3. 1. In case of JV, the lead partner shall meet the shortlisting criteria of turnover under (b) Annual Turnover) above and meet the experience criteria under (c) Similar Experience) above (having executed the assignments with contract value indicated therein - USD 3,000,000). The JV partner should also meet the shortlisting criteria under (c) Similar Experience) above (having executed the assignments with contract value as 50% of the value indicated therein - USD 1,500,000).
4. 1. In case of Consultant who intends to associate with other firm(s) in the form of a sub-consultancy, the lead partner shall meet all shortlisting criteria, including of turnover and similar experience as under (b) & (c) above.
5. Eligibility requirements in compliance with paragraphs 3.21, 3.22, & 3.23 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers, Procurement in investment Projects Financing, Goods, Works, Non-Consulting and Consulting Services July 2016 Revised November 2017 and August 2018.
6. The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to paragraph 3.16 and 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers, Procurement in investment Projects Financing, Goods, Works, Non-Consulting and Consulting Services July 2016 Revised November 2017 and August 2018, setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.
7. A consultant firm will be selected through Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) in accordance with the procedures set out in the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations.  
8. Further information in respect to this REOI can be obtained at the address below by email or in person during office hours i.e. 08:00 AM - 04:00 PM.
9. Submission of EOI - Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form as per the formats attached in Annexure 1 to the address below (in person or by e-mail) latest by January. 10.2021 at 04:00 PM (Kabul Local Time).

Attention:  Bidding Facilitation Secretariat

Address: 1st Floor of National Procurement Authority Building, Administrative Office of the President, Pashtoonistan Watt, Kabul, Afghanistan.

Electronic mail address: bfs-npa@npa.gov.af

Telephone No: +93 (0) 20-292-6290| + (93) 791 045 5055

Attention:  Mohsin Nisar

Procurement specialist | Procurement Facilitation Unit for Donor funded projects | Procurement Facilitation Directorate| National Procurement Authority (NPA) Administrative Office of the President (AOP) | Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Phone Number: +93 (0) 20-292-6283

Email: mohsin.nisar@npa.gov.af  copied hikmatullah.asad@npa.gov.af to,   aziz.obaidi@npa.gov.af,   dr.nasim1@yahoo.com,  abdulsattar@momp.gov.af 

(The ToR is accessible through direct link: www.npa.gov.af  / www.ageops.net )

The EOI with all details should, preferably, not exceed 40 pages in total.

Annexure 1: Format for Expression of Interest

“The Consultant is strongly recommended to provide the information required in the REOI for the Criteria in the following formats:

SECTION 1: Organization Details (In case the EoI is being submitted as a Joint Venture, the information has to be submitted for the Lead Partner as well as other members of the Joint Venture separately.)

SECTION 2: Documents to be submitted

SECTION 3: Format for furnishing details of Credentials / Past Experiences for projects in undertaking related or similar assignment as at Sl. No. 3 of Section 2. The information need to be furnished as per the Format below for each credential.

The project citation should be a maximum of 2 pages per credential/project along with documents as mentioned under Sl. No. 3 of Section 2 (above). The citation need to be furnished for each credential.

SECTION 4: Format for furnishing details of Credentials / Past Experiences cited under Sl. No. 4 of Section 2. The information need to be furnished as per the Format below for each credential.

The project citation should be a maximum of 2 page per credential/project along with documents as mentioned under Sl. No. 4 of Section 2 (above). The citation need to be furnished for each credential.

ToR-TLSF-Final sent to WB with REOI via STEP.14.12.2020