Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2019-12-11
Buyer: UK Research and Innovation
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 34500000 | 34510000 | 34514100 | 34514900 | 43131200
Estimated value: 16000000 USD

Technical requirements: This prior information notice is being issued to make the market aware of a pending tender exercise and to welcome feedback on our chosen lot structure with regards to this procurement exercise. If you believe this is of interest to you and your organisation, please register an expression of interest and provide any feedback you may have by sending an email to the following email address: majorprojects@uksbs.co.uk
Your email should include the reference ‘UK SBS PR18152’ and you should include your company name and contact details of relevant representatives. For the avoidance of doubt, this notice is not a call for competition; a contract notice will be issued as a call for competition. Not registering an interest 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 position not to award a contract.
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 10/10th ice coverage and to date is one of the few continuously coring expeditions to an ice covered high latitude environment.
In 2021 the IODP will undertake a similar drilling/coring expedition to the high Arctic, Expedition 377: Arctic Ocean Paleoceanography (ArcOP), http://www.ecord.org/expedition377, again using a drillship.
It is anticipated that the 2021 ArcOP expedition will also incorporate 2-3 ice breakers in addition to the drilling platform to assist in managing the ice conditions.
— water depths and penetration are both deeper, requiring a longer drill string and consequently a longer time on site to core the holes.
The dates, which are fixed, for the expedition are: Depart northern Norway 1.9.2021 on passage to work area. Depart work area, mid October 2021, on passage to demobilisation port. The dates for mobilisation and demobilisation are dictated by the above dates. These dates predict 34 days on site. The location for mobilisation and demobilisation has not been determined and will be decided with the successful supplier, during the contracting stage.
The overall goal of ArcOP is the recovery of a complete stratigraphic sedimentary record on the southern Lomonosov Ridge to meet the highest priority paleoceanographic objective: the continuous long-term Cenozoic climate history of the central Arctic Ocean. Furthermore, sedimentation rates 2 to 4 times higher than those of ACEX are expected to permit higher-resolution studies of Arctic climate change.
This lot is for a scientific drilling and coring capability to operate in the high Arctic during the annual minimum ice cover period. This contract is for a drilling capability and ideally a drilling platform.
Scientific coring is often different from most commercial coring operations in the requirement for continuous, high quality (undisturbed and very high percentage) and efficient/productive core recovery. The quality of the science depends on the quality of the core and the speed to obtain this core. The borehole sites and coring operation will be dictated by the ice conditions and priorities at the time of the expedition, with multiple operational plans that could be followed.
This scientific coring differs from oil and gas drilling in that the boreholes will not be drilling into or near hydrocarbon resources. This reduces any environment impact and improves the safety of the drilling operation over oil and gas drilling.
Please ensure you read the additional information provided in Section VI.3) Additional information regarding the purpose of this prior information notice.
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 10/10th ice coverage and to date is one of the few continuously coring expeditions to an ice covered high latitude environment.
In 2021 the IODP will undertake a similar drilling/coring expedition to the high Arctic, Expedition 377: Arctic Ocean Paleoceanography (ArcOP), http://www.ecord.org/expedition377, again using a drillship.
It is anticipated that the 2021 ArcOP expedition will also incorporate 2-3 ice breakers in addition to the drilling platform to assist in managing the ice conditions.


Award value: 16000000