April 28 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition authority said it suspended a public tender for expansion of above-ground infrastructure at Bulgaria's sole gas storage facility Chiren called by gas network operator Bulgartransgaz, after ruling in favour of a complaint lodged by local company Nova Gas 2021.
The procedure was halted temporarily to ensure a competitive environment as well as compliance with public tender legislation, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said in in its decision published last week.
In mid-March, Bulgartransgaz invited bids for the construction and commissioning of above-ground infrastructure facilities at Chiren - a project with an estimated value of 300 million levs ($161 million/153.4 million euro). Potential candidates could submit their bids by April 20.
Nova Gas is jointly owned by power plant equipment maintenance company Atomenergoremont as well as construction companies Rapid Build and Habau. The company submitted a competition complaint to the CPC at the start of April, according to documents published on the competition authority's website.
Nova Gas objected that certain technical parameters and conditions of the tender were restrictive, such as requirements by Bulgartransgaz for the use of gas turbines produced by US company Solar Turbines.
At the end of March, Bulgartransgaz also launched a 133.7 million levs for the drilling and construction of new wells at the Chiren underground gas storage (UGS) facility.
Local media reported that Nova Gas has submitted a complaint against that procedure as well.
In January, the European Commission granted 78 million euro to Bulgartransgaz to fund the expansion of the Chiren facility, which is seen as crucial for the security of gas supply in the region of Southeast Europe.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)