By Hayal Alemayehu

A 150 million birr fuel supply contract slipped out of Yetebaberut Beherawi Petroleum S.C’s (YBP) hand as the Ethiopian Electric and Power Corporation (EEPCO) re-tendered the diesel oil supply bid for its power generating site in Debre Zeit, a town 45km east of Addis Ababa, it was learnt.

EEPCo floated the original fuel supply bid two months ago with the site chosen for the power generation then being Awash, a town some 230km east of Addis. Consequently, oil companies submitted their proposal to the corporation and the National Oil Company (NOC) was later found out to be the least bidder, and hence the potential winner.

The corporation, however, changed plans and decided the power generation site to shift to Debre Zeit. The move had, then, forced the corporation to re-tender the bid because the logistics involved in the fuel supply will significantly deter the financial proposal the companies offered. Accordingly, the corporation re-tended the bid after consulting its legal department personnel, according to Melaku Mamo, Executive Officer of EEPCo’s Generation Operation.

Consequently, YBP became the least bidder for the tender floated for the second time, and hence the would-be winner for the 150 million birr, six-month, fuel supply contract oil companies operating in the country vied to clinch.

The corporation, however, for the second time re-tendered the same bid this week, after an appeal made by NOC which stated that “it had basically” won the contract, according to Melaku. “We have again consulted our legal department before we decided to re-tender the bid,” the executive said. The final winner is expected to be known over the weekend, according to Melaku.

The bid involves the supply of eighteen to twenty-four thousand liters of diesel oil to EEPCo’s power generation site in Debre Zeit where generators with a combined installed capacity of 30MW will be erected. The generators are already at the port of Djibouti and will in ten days arrive at the site, according to Melaku.

EEPCo has a similar power generation site in Nazareth, a town about 100km east of Addis. NOC is currently supplying diesel oil for this power generation site expected to start generating power in the coming weeks.