Botas Petroleum Pipeline Corporation; International Project Department; Bilkent Plaza a-2 Blok 06530; Bilkent, Ankara, Turkey; Phone: 90-312-284-52-10; Fax: 90-312-284-52-20

B -- BOTAS FINANCIAL, LEGAL, AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CONSULTANCY: BAKU-CEYHAN & OTHER TURKISH PIPELINES POC POC Evangela Kunene, USTDA, 1621 N. Kent Street, Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22209-2131, Tel: (703) 875-4357, Fax: (703) 875-4009 BOTAS Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS) invites submission of qualifications and proposal data (collectively referred to as the "Proposal") from interested U.S. firms which are qualified on the basis of experience and capability to provide financial, legal, and technical assistance to the BOTAS to develop project structures, financing strategies, technical and economic parameters, and multilateral legal framework for major oil and/or gas pipelines that may be constructed in Turkey over the next several years. The selected firm would also be expected to coordinate negotiations with potential investors, lendors, and guarantors to the pipeline projects. There are at least two major pipeline and a number of secondary pipelines, transmission and distribution systems that may be constructed in Turkey over the next several years. Because of the complexity of the technical, economic, financial and legal issues involved, the Government of Turkey has requested a grant from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA) to fund a consultant team composed of financial, legal and technical experts to provide advisory services to BOTAS. If a team of U.S. firms submits a proposal, one must be designated as prime contractor. The U.S. firm selected will be paid in U.S. dollars from a $823,000 grant to the BOTAS from TDA, which is expected to be signed in late October 1998. The team of U.S. consultants will provide the technical assistance through a task order contract with BOTAS. The Terms of Reference developed by TDA and BOTAS sets forth in great detail the specific task elements that BOTAS may call upon the consulting team to provide. These elements include: (1) developing a financing strategy by calculating various options and scenarios; (2) proposing a legal framework that will enable the requisite enterprises to be formed in Turkey to secure financing according to the most favorable economic scenarios; (3) drafting project documents; and (4) analyzing environmental and technical aspects of design and technology alternatives. TDA shall have the right to review and approve each task order before the consultant team commences performance, and the team will be limited to charging the rates set forth in its proposal. BOTAS will select a U.S. firm(s) based upon the following evaluation criteria: (1) qualifications and experience of key personnel; (2) work plan for developing financing strategy; (3) work plan for developing legal framework; (4) work plan for organizational task elements; (5) qualifications and experience of prime contractor and other subcontractor team members; and (6) estimated cost based upon proposed schedule of rates broken down by labor category. A detailed Request for Proposals (RFP), which includes requirements for the Proposal and the consultancys Terms of Reference, is available from TDA, at 1621 N. Kent Street, Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22209-2131. Requests for the RFP should be faxed to the IRC, TDA at 703-875-4009. In the fax, please include your firms name, contact person, address, and telephone number. Some firms have found that RFP materials sent by U.S. mail do not reach them in time for preparation of an adequate response. Firms that want TDA to use an overnight delivery service should include the name of the delivery service and your firm's account number in the request for the RFP. Firms that want to send a courier to TDA to retrieve the RFP should allow one hour after faxing the request to TDA before scheduling a pick-up. Please note that no telephone requests for the RFP will be honored. Please check your internal fax verification receipt. Because of the large number of RFP requests, TDA cannot respond to requests for fax verification. Requests for RFPs received before 4:00 PM will be mailed the same day. Requests received after 4:00 PM will be mailed the following day. Please check with your courier and/or mail room before calling TDA. Only U.S. firms and individuals may bid on this TDA-funded activity. Interested firms, their subcontractors and employees of all participants must qualify under TDA's nationality requirements as of the due date for submission of qualifications and proposals and, if selected to carry out the TDA-financed activity, must continue to meet such requirements throughout the duration of the TDA-financed activity. All goods and services to be provided by the selected firm shall have their nationality, source and origin in the U.S. or Turkey. Details of TDA's nationality requirements and mandatory contract clauses are also included in the RFP. Interested U.S. firms should submit their Proposal in English directly to BOTAS by 4:00 p.m. December 4, 1998 at the above address. Evaluation criteria for the Proposal are included in the RFP. BOTAS reserves the right to reject any and/or all Proposals. BOTAS also reserves the right to contract with the selected firm for subsequent work related to the project. BOTAS is not bound to pay for any costs associated with the preparation and submission of Proposals. Posted 10/21/98 (I-SN264168). (0294)

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