March 15 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's gas transmission network operator Bulgartransgaz said that it has received offers from three tie-ups in a tender for awarding a 2.29 billion levs ($1.3 billion/1.2 billion euro) contract for construction of a 484 km natural gas pipeline.
The first offer was submitted on March 5 by DZZD Consortium Gas Development and Expansion in Bulgaria, comprising Italy's Consorzio Varna 1 and the Bulgarian branch of Luxembourg-registered Completions Development, documents published by Bulgartransgaz on Thursday, showed.
The other two offers, filed on March 6, were tabled by a tie-up between ОТ Industries Fovallkozo Zrt. and OT Industries – KVV Kivitelezo Zrt., and a tie-up between Italy-based Arkad ABB and Saudi Arabia's Arkad Engineering and Construction Company.
The tender is part of a larger project for building new infrastructure for transit of natural gas to Europe through a branch of TurkStream pipeline that will cross Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.
At the end of January, Bulgartransgaz successfully completed the binding Phase 3 of the economic test for the project.
Russia's Gazprom plans to build a string of its TurkStream pipeline for transit of gas to Europe from Turkey via Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. The TurkStream offshore gas pipeline, stretching 930 km across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey, consists of two parallel strings with annual throughput capacity of 15.75 billion cubic metres of gas each. One string is intended for consumers in Turkey, while the second will carry gas to customers in Europe.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)