Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has adopted standardised selection criteria for companies bidding for contracts from the national oil company and its subsidiaries, and simplified the prequalification procedure for companies that have registered.

Contractors, suppliers and manufacturers bidding for tenders from Adnoc or its subsidiaries Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (Adco), Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco), Abu Dhabi Gas Industires (Gasco), and Zakum Development Company (Zadco), are now subject to the same prequalification criteria. Once a bidder has been prequalified with one of the companies, the information will be available to the other members in the Adnoc group via “commercial directory data sharing” on an online date base.

“We started implementing this unified procedure between the five companies in January,” says Mohammed Mazen al-Masri, senior registration coordinator at Gasco. “All suppliers will be evaluated on the same basis for the five companies.”

This will smooth the prequalification procedure for the bidder.

Once prequalified with one entity, bidders will be fast-tracked for prequalification for contracts at other Adnoc companies. In practical terms, this means that the evaluation teams will omit a site visit that would otherwise be required, according to Masri.

The Adnoc companies have also simplified the tendering process by launching an online registration system. The system is not unified, and each company has its own e-registration portal.

“What we are trying to do in the future is to develop the system to make it easier for bidders, because now they have to submit bids to Zadco, to Adnoc, to Adma-Opco, to Adco, even if they are prequalified with Gasco,” said Masri.