January 27 (SeeNews) - Greece's Corinth Pipeworks has completed the production of the first 47 km of line pipes for the Greece-Bulgaria gas link, ICGB, the project company developing the interconnection said on Monday, adding the project is moving forward according to plan.
The delivery of the pipes is scheduled for the first week of February, with the pipes to be transported to storage bases along the pipeline route in both Greece and Bulgaria, ICGB said in an e-mailed statement.
The first batch consists of 32-inch in diameter line pipes with external three-layer polyethylene coating. The production of line pipes for the purposes of the gas interconnector is divided into a total of five batches.
ICGB signed contracts for the supply of pipes and construction of the interconnector with Corinth Pipeworks Industry and J&P-Avax, respectively, last year. The construction of the 123-km section of the interconnector on Bulgarian soil will begin in 2020, the energy ministry said at the time.
The pipeline, which has a total estimated cost of 220 million euro ($242.7 million), will connect the Greek gas transmission system in the area of Komotini to the Bulgarian gas transmission system in the area of Stara Zagora. The planned length of the pipeline is 182 km and the projected capacity will be up to 3 billion cu m per year in the direction from Greece to Bulgaria.
($ = 0.90664 euro)