September 25 (SeeNews) - The deadline for completing the construction of the Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector could be extended to the second half of 2021 from April 2021 currently, Bulgarian media reported.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the disruption of international travel and supplies, the company tasked with the construction of the pipeline - Greece's AVAX, has asked for an extension of the deadline, business news outlet Capital.bg quoted the executive officer of the ICGB project company from the Bulgarian side, Teodora Georgieva, as saying on Thursday.
The extension has not yet been approved by the project company, Georgieva noted.
Until recently, representatives of the ICGB project company and the Bulgarian government claimed that the project is on track to be completed ahead of schedule, by the end of 2020.
The pipeline, which has a total estimated cost of 220 million euro ($256.5 million), will connect the Greek gas transmission system in the area of Komotini to the Bulgarian gas transmission system in the area of Stara Zagora. The projected capacity will be up to 3 billion cu m per year in the direction from Greece to Bulgaria.
The planned length of the pipeline is 182 km - 151 km of the interconnector will be laid on Bulgarian territory, while 31 km will be laid in Greece.
($ = 0.8576 euro)