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SOFIA (Bulgaria), January 18 (SeeNews) - ICGB, the project company developing the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, said on Thursday it has decided to extend the deadline for submission of offers regarding the owners engineer tender to February 13, after the competition regulator refused to initiate administrative proceedings on filed appeals. The appeals were filed by Bulgarias Next Invest and Vini Bulgaria on December 22 and as a result the public procurement procedure was temporarily suspended until the Commission for Protection of Competitions ruling, ICGB said in a statement. The extension of the deadline for submission of offers has been sent for publishing in the Public Procurement Register, according to the statement. "The successful completion of this tender is of great significance with regard to the active role of the owner engineer in carrying out of public procurements for the line pipe supply and EPC and also for keeping up with the estimated key dates of the Road map of the project," ICGB said. The ICGB pipeline will connect the Greek gas transmission system in the area of Komotini to the Bulgarian gas transmission system in the area of Stara Zagora. The planned length of the pipeline is 182 km and the projected capacity will be up to 3 billion cu m per year in the direction from Greece to Bulgaria. Depending on interest from the market and the capacities of the neighbouring gas transmission systems, the capacity of the pipeline can be increased up to 5 billion cu m per year, thus allowing for physical reverse flow from Bulgaria to Greece with the additional installation of a compressor station. The gas link is estimated to cost 220 million euro ($268.7 million). The project company has secured a sovereign guarantee of 110 million euro under the annual state budget act, which could ensure loan financing under preferable conditions. The project is being implemented by the joint venture company ICGB, in which state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and Greece-registered IGI Poseidon hold equal shares. Greek public gas corporation DEPA and Italian energy group Edison own 50% each of IGI Poseidon |
