Three vie in Bulgartransgaz tender for Vertical Gas Corridor expansion

In 2016, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary reached an agreement to develop the required infrastructure for the so-called Vertical Gas Corridor, enabling bidirectional gas transmission among the participating countries. Ukraine, Moldova and Slovakia joined the initiative earlier this year.

The tender, divided into three lots, involves spatial planning, investment design and delivery of necessary materials and equipment, along with construction and commissioning of new sites for infrastructure expansion at the Kulata-Sidirokastro and Negru Voda-Kardam interconnection points, Bulgartransgaz said in a statement.

Bulgartransgaz aims to increase the transmission capacity from Greece to Bulgaria at the Kulata-Sidirokastro interconnection point and from Bulgaria to Romania at the Negru Voda-Kardam interconnection point.

All three lots received offers from a consortium led by U.S.-based construction consulting firm Hill International and Bulgarian construction group Glavbolgarstroy (GBS), a consortium between Poland's Romhos Gvyazdovtse and local companies Climatronic and Bulstroy-Montagi and a consortium led by U.S.-based engineering solutions provided Divicom, Romanian construction company Habau and local firm SA.I.E.

The selection criteria will prioritise the most economically advantageous offers based on value for money, taking into account the participants' project implementation plans and proposed prices.

Earlier this month, Bulgartransgaz launched a 15 million levs tender for reversing the Kardam compressor station at the Romanian border and expanding its control system's capacity as part of the gas corridor project.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)