CONUS - Helium

This is a Sources Sought notice issued by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Energy-FEM - San Antonio, Texas. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals.  No awards will be made from the responses to this announcement.  However, responses may be used to determine the appropriate acquisition strategy for a potential future procurement. This notice issued by DLA Energy is to identify potential sources and solicit industry to express their capability and interest to provide all helium, personnel, materials, supplies, management, engineering, tools, equipment, services, and labor necessary for accomplishing these requirements. This potential requirement is for the filling of bulk gaseous helium containers at the supplier’s facility within the Continental United States (CONUS), on an FOB Destination basis.  In this requirement FOB Destination means the potential suppliers fill-point/plant(s) into a customer provided trailer.  The Government shall be responsible for shipping trailers to/from supplier facility.  The Government may contract for all, some, or none of the below, however it still is requesting sources for a potential requirement.

SCOPE OF REQUIREMENTS:  The Contractor shall be responsible for all aspects associated in obtaining and managing all facilities, land, utilities, equipment, personnel, raw materials, supplies, and services needed to support and meet the following requirements.   

Filling bulk helium containers with compressed gas helium that meets the product specifications contained within to pressures between 2400 and 4500 psi.  Safely fill multiple types of bulk helium containers in accordance with CGA standards. 

PRODUCT:   Gaseous Helium (Bulk) shall conform to the requirements of Type I, Grade A of specification MIL-PRF-27407D, dated 01 August 2014, Propellant Pressurizing Agent Helium, NSN: 9135-01-644-2502 and Pressurizing Agent Gaseous Helium (Bulk), NSN: 6830-01-665-9883, Type I Grade N, in accordance with CGA G-9.1N (available from American Gas Association).

For the MIL-PRF-27407D Helium, gas containers interconnected by a single manifold that equalizes the pressure across all the containers is considered a lot and shall be sampled and analyzed.  The samples shall be taken from the manifold sampling point on the containers.  Sampling shall be accomplished by one of the methods indicated in the MIL-PRF-27407D.  The sampling port on the manifold shall be clean and free of contaminants.

One copy of a Certificate of Analysis (COA) for each sample required by the specification shall be attached to the container inside the rear cabinet and shall also be submitted as an attachment to the applicable Invoicing, Receipt, Acceptance, and Property Transfer (iRAPT) document (Wide Area Workflow-WAWF).

FILLING OF BULK HELIUM CONTAINERS:

Customers shall maintain bulk helium containers in a ready to fill state.  Helium containers shall be serviceable, road-worthy, and meet CGA, DOT, and industry standards for safe transport.  Gauges, manifolds, and valves shall be operational to CGA and industry standards.

Contractor shall fill helium containers to the maximum allowable working pressure as stated on each container.

Product Heel:  All helium containers returning to the Contractors fill point will have residual product inside.  The Contractor shall have the capability to analyze heel for compliance with specification stated herein.  Product heel that conforms to the specification shall be retained within the helium container for top-filling.  At no time will heel product be purged from returning containers unless approved by the DLA Contracting Officer.

In the event heel product does not meet the specification or helium container is contaminated (e.g., valves open or no pressure in the cylinders/tubes), Contractor shall have the capability to clean, evacuate, and/or purge bulk helium containers within 24 hours, so that when filled, the product will meet specification requirements.  Purge procedures shall follow industry standards for bringing containers back into service.

Contractor shall routinely fill helium containers within 5 days of issuance date on delivery order. If an expedited delivery is required, the Contractor shall utilize “commercially reasonable efforts” to have compressed helium gas tube-bank trailer(s) and/or ISO tube module container(s) filled and ready for shipment within 48 hours of receipt of the delivery order.

Contractor shall provide proper material handling equipment needed to move ISOs as necessary during filling operations.

BULK HELIUM EQUIPMENT TYPES:

Chassis-mounted compressed gas ISO container – Length: 279", Width: 96", Height 131“, Gross weight full is about 40,000 lbs.  MAWP is about 2850 psi. Capacity is about 91,000 cubic feet or about 2,580 cubic meters. Containers have 12 cylinders each.

ESTIMATED QUANTITIES AND LOCATIONS: See Attachment 1 – Estimated Quantity by Customer Locations.

UNIT OF MEASURE: 1 MC is equivalent to 1,000 standard cubic feet.

ANTICIPATED PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: This potential requirement has a 4-year period of performance, 1 October 2023 through 30 September 2027.

ANTICIPATED CONTRACT TYPE: Requirements type contract, single award.  The Government will not lock into a fixed quantity, but all helium needed to support these locations will be pulled under this contract.

CAPABILITY STATEMENT:  Interested qualified organizations should submit a capability statement for this requirement addressing the areas below.  Statements should include an indication of current business size and a list of available ancillary services available as well as any technical information believed to be useful to the Government. The capability statement at a minimum shall address the potential vendor’s ability of the following:

a. Capability to fully meet the specification. Contractors must address the helium industry and the ability to meet all the needs for the entire period of performance. Contractors should address previous force majeures in helium, and how those would impact this requirement.  The intent of this requirement is to be Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS) rated. Capability to perform all the sampling/testing requirements listed in the specifications.

b. Capability and willingness to allow government quality assurance inspectors access to supplier production/load-out plant to conduct quality assurance assessments as needed.

c. Statement of ability to meet needs for all DLA Customers.

d. Capability for a potential Federal Government Contract, your company must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) https://www.sam.gov/portal/SAM/#1. Is your company registered SAM, and if so, what is your company's cage code and Duns # If your company is not currently registered in SAM, would you be willing to register in the SAM system?

e. What is the size of your company?  What are your primary and secondary NAICS codes?  If you identify as a Small Business (SB), please identify your company’s small business size standard based on the primary NAICS code 325120 – Industrial Gas Manufacturing.

f. Confirmation that you have the space to temporarily store helium trailers during product fill and provide time duration. (i.e. how long can equipment be at your facility while on-ward transportation is coordinated?)

g. Provide a list of company helium manufacturing fill-points/plants, to include city and state.

h. Comment on the potential period of performance (4 years).  Thoughts on whether this is right or would prefer something longer.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:  All capability statements sent in response to this Sources Sought Notice shall be submitted to Contracting Officers Tammie Campbell, at tammie.campbell@dla.mil and Jamie Summe, at jamie.summe@dla.mil.   All responses must be received by 6 February 2023 at 2:00 pm Central Time.

DISCLAIMER AND IMPORTANT NOTES:  This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. Respondents will be added to the prospective offerors list for any subsequent solicitation. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

CONFIDENTIALITY:  No classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. All proprietary information should be marked as such.