Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2019-02-04
Buyer: UK Research and Innovation
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 71351600 | 76320000

Technical requirements: This Prior Information Notice is being issued to make the market aware and gage levels of interest of a pending tender exercise with regards to ice and fleet management service for an Arctic Drilling Project (see below for scope). If you believe this opportunity may be of interest to you and your organisation, we request that you register an expression of interest by sending an email to the following email address: majorprojects@uksbs.co.uk
Your email should have the subject heading "PR18053 Ice and Fleet Management Services PIN EOI” please include your company name, contact names, contact telephone numbers, email address of relevant representatives and any company information which you consider may be of interest to the contracting authority. All information obtained through expressions of interest, will be used to assist the Contracting Authority with the procurement strategy for this requirement.
For the avoidance of doubt, this notice is not a call for competition; subject to procurement strategy approvals, a Contract Notice will be issued as a call for competition. Not registering an interest to this PIN shall not prevent any supplier participating in a future procurement, nor is it intended that any information supplied shall place any supplier at an advantage in a potential procurement process. UKRI reserves the right not to progress to the procurement stage and also reserves the right not to award a contract as a result of any future procurement activity.
In 2004 the IODP undertook a high Arctic scientific drilling/coring campaign Expedition 302 “ACEX” http://www.ecord.org/expedition302/ to study the history of the Arctic. This utilised a drilling system built onto the icebreaker vessel “Vidar Viking”, with icebreakers “Oden” and the “Sovetskiy Soyuz” as ice protection vessels coupled with ice management expertise. This expedition expanded the knowledge of managing a drillship in near 10/10
In 2021 the IODP will undertake a similar drilling/coring expedition to the high Arctic, Expedition 377 ArcOP, http://www.ecord.org/expedition377 again using a drillship. Drilling will only be possible if there is a robust integrated method to manage the ice conditions.
Establishing the ice and fleet management early in the project will assist in planning the drilling capability and operational strategy.
The intended contract is for integrated ice and fleet management services to support a scientific drilling/coring expedition to the Arctic Ocean. The intended contract is not for a drilling platform. The current intention is to competitively tender this requirement via the open procedure advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union in compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, as amended.
Bidders will be required to respond to questions relating to a detailed specification (currently in development) and provide a detailed response on how they would undertake the full range of ice and fleet management services and describe the resources and techniques that will be provided to achieve this.
The period of operation will be the summer of 2021, during the minimum yearly ice coverage. This translates to a period between an early August mobilisation and a mid-October demobilisation, with onsite operations being conducted for approximately 45 days. The exact dates will depend on mobilisation ports, advice from the ice and fleet management service provider and the available budget.
We estimate that the Contract Notice will be released in April 2019 for interested parties to respond.
The requirement is for an integrated ice and fleet management service that will allow the drillship to stay on station and must cover all three components listed below. The scope of the requirement does not cover the provision of the drillship.
The ice and fleet management can be broken into three components that must co-ordinate and work closely together. These three components are:
1) Ice and weather forecasting. Provision of an ice conditions and weather service, on a continuous 24 hours basis for the entire duration of the project;
2) Icebreaker fleet management. Provision of service to direct a fleet of icebreaker vessels to breakup and deflect ice flowing towards a drillship, in order for the drillship to maintain its position;
3) Icebreaker vessels. Provision of one or more icebreakers that have the requisite ice breaking capability, power and manœuvrability to manage the variable ice conditions encountered to break up any ice, such that it will easily pass the drillship without moving the drillship off position.