SOURCES SOUGHT
99 -- Liquid Helium for NIST Gaithersburg
- Notice Date
- 10/23/2014
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 325120
— Industrial Gas Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B130, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899-1410, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20899-1410
- Solicitation Number
- CAW-2015-Helium
- Archive Date
- 11/15/2014
- Point of Contact
- Carol A. Wood, Phone: 301-975-8172, Carol A. Wood, Phone: 301-975-8172
- E-Mail Address
-
carol.wood@nist.gov, carol.wood@nist.gov
(carol.wood@nist.gov, carol.wood@nist.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE for market research purposes. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS OR A REQUEST FOR QUOTATIONS. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) anticipates a requirement for liquid helium on an as-needed basis for a one year base period, and, a minimum of two, but not more than four one-year option periods. The Contractor must furnish the necessary personnel, material, equipment, services, and facilities to supply liquid helium in 30, 60, 100, 250, and 1000 liter, well-maintained, Contractor-owned dewars. Dewar size indicates product capacity of the dewar. The highest volume of dewar usage is 100 liter dewars, followed by 250 liter dewars with some 30 and 60 liter sizes. NIST does not anticipate using more than two 1,000 liter dewars at any one time and with minimal frequency. The total quantity of liquid helium required is estimated to be between 110,000 and 130,000 liters per year for the base period and each of the option periods, if the option periods are exercised. Purity of the liquid helium shall be a minimum of 99.998%. It will be required that the Contractor establish a flat monthly rental rate for demurrage charges associated with the Government's use of Contractor-owned dewars. NIST currently orders twice weekly, on Monday and Wednesday, with deliveries on Tuesdays and Thursdays before noon Eastern time. It is anticipated that this delivery schedule will be maintained. In accordance with FAR 52.208-8 Required Sources for Helium and Helium Usage Data: Contractors must purchase major helium requirements from Federal helium suppliers (FHS), to the extent that supplies are available. "Federal helium supplier" means a private helium vendor that has an in-kind crude helium sales contract with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and that is on the BLM Amarillo Field Office's Authorized List of Federal Helium Suppliers available via the Internet at http://blm.gov/8pjd. In September 2014, NIST executed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Bureau of Land Management. Under this MOU, the BLM agreed to allocate (not transfer or sell) in-kind helium to the federal helium supplier that is awarded any competitive contract awarded by NIST, in the month the helium is required to be delivered. The intent of the MOU is to encourage FHSs to respond to solicitations for helium solicited by NIST. Historically, it is believed that FHSs could not respond to solicitations for helium because they were already allocating their other customers and do not receive their allocation of in-kind helium from the BLM until about six months after delivery. NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large, foreign, and small businesses. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 325120 Industrial Gas Manufacturing, as those domestic sources having 1,000 employees or less. Please include your company's size classification in any response to this notice. The Small Business Administration has waived the non-manufacturer rule for this NAICS code. The prime contractor must be a small business in accordance with the NAICS code, however, the small business does not have to provide the product of a small business manufacturer. The small business does, however, have to provide the product of an FHS. Interested and responsible parties are requested to email documentation describing their capabilities to carol.wood@nist.gov not later than the response date for this sources sought notice. After the results of this market research are obtained and analyzed, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a contract. If at least two qualified small businesses are identified during market research, then any competitive procurement that resulted would likely be conducted as a small business set-aside. Documentation must explain all capabilities, including the capability to provide the required helium product and dewars, as well as any other information relevant to your products and/or capabilities. Also, the following information is requested to be provided as part of the response to this sources sought notice: 1. Name and business size of the company proposing to perform the work; 2. Confirmation that the Contractor is an FHS or has an active business relationship with an FHS; 3. If subcontractors or distributors would be utilized, the name of company(ies), and a point of contact for the company (name, phone number, fax number and email address); 4. Confirmation that the identified ordering/delivery time can be met; 5. Confirmation of the maximum number of option periods for which the Contractor could provide a firm-fixed per liter price for helium; 6. Estimated number of dewars that could be made available to fulfill the NIST requirement; 7. Size of the Contractor's truck fleet for delivery of dewars and the number of truck routes currently serviced by that fleet; 8. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in finalizing its market research. All documentation must be sent to Carol A. Wood, Contract Specialist, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1640. E-mail address: CAROL.WOOD@NIST.GOV. Responses are due not later than Friday, October 31, 2014, at 3:30 PM Eastern Time. Email response is acceptable.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/CAW-2015-Helium/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Deliver to:, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899, United States
- Zip Code: 20899
- Zip Code: 20899
- Record
- SN03556881-W 20141025/141023234427-cc75444436a5b7cff60dad830150d962 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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