April 4 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian state-owned gas transmission operator Bulgartransgaz said on Thursday that it launched a 15 million levs ($8.3 million/7.7 million euro) tender for reversing the Kardam compressor station at the Romanian border and expanding its control system's capacity as part of an initiative to build a gas corridor linking Greece and northern Europe.
The tender envisages investment design, materials and equipment supply, along with construction and commissioning of the site, Bulgartransgaz said in a statement.
In 2016, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary agreed to develop the required infrastructure for the so-called Vertical Gas Corridor, enabling bidirectional gas transmission among the participating countries. Ukraine, Moldova and Slovakia joined the initiative earlier this year.
Potential candidates can submit their offers by May 7. The selection criteria will prioritise the most economically advantageous offers based on value for money, taking into account the participants' project implementation plans and proposed prices.
The tender is part of Bulgartransgaz's broader project to expand the Vertical Gas Corridor, announced last month, with an estimated value of 586.7 million levs. It aims to boost transmission capacity from Greece to Bulgaria at the Kulata-Sidirokastro interconnection point and from Bulgaria to Romania at the Negru Voda-Kardam interconnection point.
Alongside the Kardam compressor station initiative, expanding the natural gas transmission capacity at the Negru Voda-Kardam interconnection point includes the construction of a 61-kilometre high-pressure gas pipeline between the villages of Rupcha and Vetrino. The upgraded infrastructure will provide an additional capacity of 137.2 GWh per day from Bulgaria to Romania, with the total technical capacity reaching 295 GWh per day.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)