October 11 (SeeNews) - A consortium led by Bulgarian construction company Glavbolgarstroy (GBS) - International Gas, was awarded a deal for building a gas link between Bulgaria and Serbia after originally first-ranked local company Canpipe BG, Bulgarian gas transmission system operator Bulgartransgaz said.
The offer of the GBS consortium was assessed to have the best quality-to-price ratio among all bidders in the tender called by Bulgartransgaz, with 97.14 points, Bulgartransgaz said in its decision published on the website of the public procurement agency.
GBS proposed to build the gas link for a price of 167.7 million levs ($99.1 million/85.8 million euro), while Canpipe BG proposed a price of 164.2 million levs, data from Bulgaria's public procurement agency's website showed.
In June, Bulgartransgaz said it ranked first the offer by Canpipe BG, a company established by local subsidiaries of Canada-based Canpipe Industries International Inc., to supply equipment and build the Bulgarian section of the gas interconnection with Serbia.
In July, Bulgaria's competition authority said that the construction of the gas link with Serbia cannot proceed before complaints against the selection of Canpipe BG as contractor in the project are settled. The project does not meet the criteria of urgency that would justify the awarding of the contract to the selected candidate before the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) has issued its final ruling on the complaints, the anti-trust body said in a statement back then.
Bulgartransgaz said earlier this year that its 143.6 million levs tender for the supply of equipment and construction of the country's section of the gas link attracted 11 offers. Bids were submitted by nine tie-ups and the Bulgarian branches of Italy-registered companies Arkad and Bonatti, Bulgartransgaz said at the time. The length of the Bulgarian section of the gas link with Serbia is 62 kilometres.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)