September 11 (SeeNews) - ICGB, the company developing the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria project, said on Tuesday that it has received 11 requests for participation in the 145 million euro ($167.9 million) tender for design, procurement and construction of the gas link.
The selection of a contractor is carried out through a restrictive procedure in two phases - pre-selection, followed by review, evaluation and ranking of offers, ICGB said in a statement.
The eleven candidates are S.P.S. P/C. Saipem, Consortium COBRA-CYMI-SOCAR, Fernas Construction Company, JV Sicilsaldo - Nuova Ghizzoni - Intrakat, DZZD "IGB-2018", SICIM, Consortium MAX STREICHER - TERNA/ICGB, Consortium Spiecapag Trace IGB 2018, J&P - AVAX, Joint Venture CPP-AKTOR and Consortium "PROMETEI - GEO"
"The companies who have shown interest are well known and with proven experience and we are certain that they can manage completing the construction process,” Konstantinos Karayannakos, ICGB’s executive officer from the Greek side, said.
As part of the pre-selection process, ICGB is expected to assess and determine the administrative capacity of the candidates by the end of October. Then, ICGB will issue an official invitation for offer submission to the candidates having the required financial and technical capacity to implement the project according to the set requirements.
On Monday, ICGB said its 8.45 million euro tender for the selection of owner's engineer has attracted offers from 12 companies and consortiums.
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. The project company has secured a sovereign guarantee of 110 million euro under the annual state budget act, which could ensure loan financing under preferable conditions.
The project is being implemented by the joint venture company ICGB, in which state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and Greece-registered IGI Poseidon hold equal shares. Greek public gas corporation DEPA and Italian energy group Edison own 50% each of IGI Poseidon.
($= 0.8636 euro)