April 30 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov said the construction of a natural gas interconnection to neighbouring Greece will most probably start around May 20, local media reported.
Borissov discussed the implementation of the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria project during an International Forum on the Eastern European gas markets, public TV broadcaster BNT reported on Monday.
Last week, ICGB, the project company developing the gas interconnector, said that Greece's J&P-Avax has offered the lowest price in the construction tender - 144.85 million euro ($162.5 million), followed by IGB-2018, a consortium comprising Bulgarian construction companies GP Group and Glavbolgarstroy International, which filed a bid priced at 229.70 million euro.
The IGB pipeline will connect the Greek gas transmission system in the area of Komotini to the Bulgarian gas transmission system in the area of Stara Zagora.
The planned length of the pipeline is 182 km and the projected capacity will be up to 3 billion cu m per year in the direction from Greece to Bulgaria. The capacity of the pipeline can be increased up to 5 billion cu m per year, depending on interest from the market and the capacities of the neighbouring gas pipelines, thus allowing for physical reverse flow from Bulgaria to Greece with the additional installation of a compressor station.
The gas link is estimated to cost 220 million euro.
($ = 0.8576 euro)