B08_SOL_JA_redacted_(1).pdf

United States Department of the Interior

INTERIOR BUSINESS CENTER

Washington, DC 20240

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR CERTAIN COMMERCIAL ITEMS AUTHORITY:

FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) 13.501(A), 41 U.S.C. 1901

Purchase Request: 40598737

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Sole Source Justification.”

This is a sole source justification for the Department of the Interior (DOI), Interior Business Center (IBC), Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD), Division V, on behalf of the Office of Natural Resource Revenue (ONRR).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

This requirement is a sole source follow-on contract for brand name specific Aspen Technology, Inc. gas and royalty software, aspenONE® Engineering.

3. A description of supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

ONRR requires a software package that has the capability to:

1. Simulate any existing gas plant

2. Define equipment by function

3. Generate capital, operating and maintenance costs for the plant by piece of equipment with functional grouping of equipment

4. Input ONRR specified cost indices.

Additionally, the software shall be offered in an integrated single package. Mission focused work requirements are completed more efficiently when ONRR can move seamlessly from plant simulator to economic analyzer as opposed to transferring the data from each program manually. Manual transfer of data could lead to errors. If the packages are integrated, the economic date is updated when simulated changes are made eliminating the need to change that factor in each program separately. Each of these requirements are key to the success of ONRR’s prime mission, the accurate collection of royalties from federal and Indian lands.

Complete list of products included in the software package is included in the Statement or Work, Attachment 1.

The estimated value is over a three year period of performance (PoP).

4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting sole source acquisition.

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items. The statutory authority permitting sole source acquisition is 41U.S.C 1901 as implemented by FAR 13.501(a)(1)(ii).

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

aspenONE® Engineering is the only commercially available software that supports both plant simulator and economic analyzer in the same application. Aspen Technology’s software provides absolute and accurate costs defined by plant function and equipment piece, which is key to ONRR’s mission to collect, account for, and verify natural resource and energy revenues that are due to states, American Indians, and the U.S. Treasury. A central part of that mission is to ensure the accurate deduction of permissible allowances for the natural resources and revenues that are generated. In order to accurately report royalties, a lessee shall breakout, or unbundle, bundled gas plant and transportation fees into allowable and non-allowable costs.

aspenONE® Engineering allows for accurate validations of those costs across various simulated plant sizes. Aspen Technology’s software has supported ONRR in providing updated, accurate simulation and analysis on allowable and non-allowable costs of bundled fees based on the marketable condition rule using the most current market data since 2014.

The Government estimates the cost for another vendor to design, test, and build a software package to meet the specifications would cost an additional , with a time frame between nine and 12 months. This additional cost and time required to create a new software package would negatively impact ONRR’s ability to meet their mission. Aspen Technology’s commercially available software is the only commercial software available that meets all of ONRR’s requirements.

6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by FAR Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under FAR 5.202 applies.

Two previous Requests for Information (RFIs) were issued in 2017 and 2019 and yielded no vendors capable of meeting the requirement. The customer performed extensive online research and interfaced with industry in 2022 to verify that the marketplace has not changed.

Based on this research, only Aspen Technology is capable of meeting the requirement. The Government will continue to research the commercial marketplace for future requirements to determine if other products become available that can meet their requirements. This Justification and Approval (J&A) will be posted publicly on the System for Award Management (SAM) with the solicitation. The requirement will be synopsized in a combined synopsis/solicitation in accordance with FAR 13.105(b).

7. A determination by the Contracting Officer (CO) that the anticipated cost to the

Government will be fair and reasonable.

The CO will determine that the anticipated price is fair and reasonable based on the historical pricing for the requirement and the Internal Government Cost Estimate (IGCE).

8. A description of the market research conducted (see Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

Two previous sole source contracts were awarded to Aspen Technology for the same requirement in 2020 and 2017, under contract numbers 140D7020C0001 and D17PC00999. RFIs were posted prior to both of these acquisitions, one in 2017 and another in 2019. The 2017 RFI received seven responses from small businesses, none of which had a readily available software package that could meet the Government’s needs. Two of the respondents provided information that determined the cost to design, test, and build a software package to meet the specifications would have resulted in a cost to the Government ranging from with a time frame between nine and 12 months. The 2019 RFI received zero responses.

The customer performed extensive online research and identified three potential vendors:

, and Aspen Technology. The customer contacted and to further discuss their capabilities. cost estimating software provides relative costs and not accurate or absolute costs. The product offerings would require two separate software packages instead of the one software package, which would be burdensome to update and manage. As such, the customer determined neither nor could meet the requirement.

Based on this research, the CO determined only Aspen Technology was the only source that could meet the requirement and that this acquisition would awarded as a sole source.

The CO reviewed Aspen’s SAM records and found they have an active registration through 4/15/2023, with no active or inactive exclusions and no debt subject to offset. The CO reviewed the Federal Awardee and Performance Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) and found they have no listed proceedings. The CO also reviewed the vendor’s Contractor Performance Assessment Retrieval System (CPARS) records and found that their last five CPARS assessments, all completed within the last three years, have ratings of Satisfactory or better. Based on this information, the CO determined Aspen could be determined responsible within the meaning of FAR 9.104-1 and would be eligible to receive a sole source award.

The CO reviewed the General Services Administration (GSA) eLibary and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solution for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (NASA SEWP) to determine if Aspen Technology, the incumbent, is listed on either of these preferred/mandatory sources.

They are not. As such, this will be a sole source, stand-alone purchase order procured under FAR

13.5 Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Products and Commercial Services.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition, such as:

None.

10. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

There are no additional sources that have expressed interest in this acquisition.

11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required.

Should any of the technical requirements change in the future, the agency will make efforts to overcome barriers to competition by completing additional market research. The Government will also continue to research the marketplace for future acquisitions to determine if competition becomes available at that time.