B10_Notice_of_Intent_to_Sole_Source_1.docx

The purpose of this announcement is to provide notice that The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), intends to make a firm fixed price, sole source award on behalf of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to 3ES Innovation Inc., 250 2 ST SW, STE 800, Calgary, AB T2) 0C1, for the procurement of Fair Market Value (FMV) analysis ensuring receipt of FMV on Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) lands mandated by the OCS Lands Act and its amendments.

This acquisition is conducted in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.106-1(b) (1) Soliciting from a Single Source. The Contracting Officer has determined that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available due to the uniquely qualified source that can provide the expertise and coordination necessary to meet the Federal Government requirements for services and no other sources will be able to accurately satisfy agency requirements.

The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for this requirement is 541511 - Customer Computer Programming Services - with a size standard of $34M.

The intent of this announcement is for informational purposes only. Responsible sources may submit a capability statement which shall be considered by the agency. No contract award will be made on the basis of EOIs, proposals or quotations received in response to this notice.

Interested persons may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement (see attached Justification) and should furnish detailed data concerning their capabilities to provide the services sought including pricing data and technical data sufficient to determine that a comparable source to the government is available. The Government will be the sole determiner regarding an offerors ability to meet all requirements. A determination by the government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the government. All information shall be furnished at no cost or obligation to the Government.

Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Submitters bear the burden of ensuring that the EOI reaches the designated contracting officer on time and are responsible for allowing adequate time for transmission to be completed. The offeror bears the risk of non-receipt of transmissions and should ensure that all pages have been received by the designated office before the deadline indicated.

This purchase will be under Simplified Acquisition Procedures and Other Than Full and Open Competition as authorized under FAR 6.302-1. This purchase order will be awarded in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation Part13. The anticipated award date is September 1, 2025. All submissions in response to this notice must be submitted in writing via email to the Contracting Officer, Michelle Potter, at michelle.potter@bsee.gov no later than July 4, 2025 at 14:00 ET. Telephone calls regarding this matter will neither be accepted nor returned.

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

FAR Subpart 13.5 - For Certain Commercial Items

1. Bureau and Contracting Activity [FAR 13.501(a)(1)(ii) and 6.303-2(b)(1)]

Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Acquisition Operations Branch

2. Description of Supplies or Services [FAR 13.501(a)(1)(ii) and 6.303-2(b)(3)]

This is a sole source action to acquire software products that will enable BOEM to conduct Fair Market Value (FMV) analysis ensuring receipt of FMV on OCS lands mandated by the OCS Lands Act and its amendments. The purchase order is to be awarded with a 12- month base period of performance and four 12-month option periods. Each option period will allow for software upgrades and additional software license leases and software maintenance/support to BOEM offices in Sterling, VA; New Orleans, LA; Camarillo, CA; and Anchorage, AK, for the purpose of FMV analysis and economic analysis for offshore carbon storage projects.

(a) Demonstration that the proposed contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited [FAR 6.303-2(b)(5)]. [Prepared by Program Office]

AES Innovation (Quorum Software) (formerly Aucerna, Caesar Systems) is the sole source having the requisite expertise to provide the software licenses and support services required by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for its ongoing efforts which entail the continued development and production of a critical Reserve, Resource, Engineering, and Economic evaluation platform with highly specialized software. By using Quorum’s Petro VR software, BOEM has acquired a certain level of experience and training in using the software and has also developed a fairly robust version of the model. This model enables BOEM Resource Evaluation geoscientists, engineers, and economists to complete a Fair Market Value (FMV) analysis and to analyze offshore carbon storage projects. Many modifications to the Quorum software related to the functionality and installing new functionality based on regulatory requirements has been implemented that is unique to BOEM mission. This includes but not limits to policy changes such as: annual lease rental rates, royalty rate, royalty suspension volumes, and royalty credits with price thresholds and floors governing the application of minimum bid amounts (per acre/hectare), tract size (acres or hectares), primary lease terms that is correspond to specified water depth ranges, and drilling depth intervals as well as social discount rate, private discount rate, inflation rate and ability to apply different inflation factors and discount rates at various points in time. If the government were to switch to another software product besides the currently used Petro VR, a significant amount of time as well as effort would be required in learning and developing the new software. With the current Petro VR software provided by Quorum, BOEM has built a unique tool that has provided the Government with extensive customization to suit its unique requirements.

If the existing Quorum software was replaced with a different product, the Resource Evaluation Program Office would lose all the technological, human, and financial capital that has been invested in defining this most critical element of BOEM business processes. This in turn may result in a significant delay of transitioning from the current application to a new model and would cost thousands of man hours to archive the level of technical competency.

(b) Describe the efforts taken to ensure offers were solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a Government-wide point of entry (GPE) notice was or will be published as required by FAR 5.2 and, if not, which exception under FAR 5.202 applies. [FAR 6.303-2(b)(6)]. [Prepared by Program Office]

A special notice will be published announcing the government's intent to issue a sole source contract. In addition, the justification will be published to ensure the public is aware of the intended activity following award. Full and open competition is not planned for this procurement.

(c) Demonstration that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable [FAR 6.303-2(b)(7)]. [Prepared by Contracting Officer]

Sufficient pricing details will be obtained from the offeror to allow a through technical evaluation and cost analysis of the proposed pricing in order to make a determination that the costs are fair and reasonable.

(d) Describe the market research conducted and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted. [FAR 6.303-2(b)(8)]. [Initiated by the Program Office and finalized in collaboration with the Contracting Officer] BOEM engineers and geoscientists investigated the utility of other potential technical solutions, through internet research, trade show demonstrations, personal industry contacts, and previous experience. Consistently, the technical team found that many other commercial industry products offered partial interpretive solutions, but no other vendor or offeror was found to offer a complete technical solution that would enable a complete economic analysis of the potential FMV analysis of the tract evaluation.

As a result, with tract specific evaluation commercial software applications that enable the BOEM technical workflow for FMV do not exist.

(e) Any other facts supporting the use of a sole source acquisition. [FAR 6.303-2(b)(9)]. [Prepared by Program Office]

NA

(f) List sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition. [FAR 6.303-2(b)(10)]. [Prepared by Program Office]

No other sources have expressed any interest in this acquisition to date.