April 24 (SeeNews) - ICGB, the company developing the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria project, said on Wednesday that it has picked a joint venture of local companies Ecoengineering, Stroy Control Engineering and Control Engineering to supervise the construction of the gas link.
The total cost for the construction supervision activities proposed by the joint venture amounts to 766,000 levs ($439,000/392,000 euro) excluding VAT, ICGB said in a statement.
Earlier this week, ICGB said that Greece's J&P-Avax has offered the lowest price - 144.85 million euro - in the tender for construction of the gas interconnector. The other bid, priced at 229.70 million euro, was filed by a consortium named IGB-2018, which according to previous statements from ICGB comprises Bulgarian construction companies GP Group and Glavbolgarstroy International.
The IGB pipeline 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. Depending on interest from the market and the capacities of the neighbouring gas transmission systems, the capacity of the pipeline can be increased up to 5 billion cu m per year, thus allowing for physical reverse flow from Bulgaria to Greece with the additional installation of a compressor station.
The gas link is estimated to cost 220 million euro overall. The project company has secured a sovereign guarantee of 110 million euro which could ensure loan financing under preferable conditions.
ICGB is a 50/50 joint venture of state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and Greece-registered IGI Poseidon. Greek public gas corporation DEPA and Italian energy group Edison own 50% each of IGI Poseidon.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)