August 11 (SeeNews) - ICGB, the project company developing the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), invited on Thursday interested bidders to place binding offers for booking capacity on the future pipeline that will link the natural gas grids of the two neighbouring countries.
"The 2nd binding Bidding Phase starts at this stage and will provide a process to confirm what will be the actual level of booked capacity on a preliminary contractual basis," ICGB, which is equally controlled by state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and IGI Poseidon, a joint venture between Greek state-owned gas supplier DEPA and Italy’s Edison, said in a statement.
During the first bidding round, when interested companies had to declare expression of interest (EOI) by April 8, ICGB received 9 non-binding offers. BEH has named six of them - its subsidiary gas monopoly Bulgargaz, Edison, Greece's DEPA and Gastrade, Azerbajan's Socar and US-based Noble.
The nine interested companies requested a total aggregate capacity of 4.3 bcm per year for gas transportation services in firm forward mode from Greece to Bulgaria and approximately 1 bcm per year for gas transportation services in firm reverse mode from Bulgaria to Greece.
The 182 km long IGB pipeline will link the northeastern Greek city of Komotini with Stara Zagora in central Bulgaria. It is estimated to cost 220 million euro ($245.5 million). The pipeline will carry 3 billion cu m of natural gas annually in its initial stage and will have a maximum capacity of 5 billion cu m per year. It will eventually be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which will carry Azeri gas to Europe through Greece.
Bulgaria and Greece signed a final investment decision on the construction of the gas link in December 2015.
($=0.8960 euro)