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| Dugopolje-Split gas pipeline (by EVN) |
SOFIA (Bulgaria) - Five offers were received on a long term basis for the binding phase of the market test for the gas interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, the company in charge of the project said on Friday.
"The announced capacity within the second phase of the market test amounts to 2.7 billion cu m, 1.57 billion cu m of which are reserved," ICGB said in a statement.
According to the procedure, the market test will be completed with the implementation of the advanced reservation capacity agreements by the companies which submitted the offers, upon approval of the relevant allocation by the national regulators of Greece and Bulgaria.
"Due to shown interest from other companies, which have not participated in the first phase of the market test for the project, there is an ongoing discussion about the possibility to initiate a procedure for allocation of the remaining capacity, respectively for participation of new shippers," ICGB added.
Last month, ICGB extended the deadline for submitting binding offers in the second stage of the market test to November 30 following requests by participants in the first phase. During the first bidding round, when interested companies had to express interest by April 8, ICGB received nine non-binding offers.
The 182 km long IGB pipeline will connect the northeastern Greek city of Komotini with Stara Zagora, in southern Bulgaria. The link is estimated to cost 220 million euro ($241.8 million). The pipeline will carry 3 billion cu m of natural gas annually in its initial stage and will have a maximum capacity of 5 billion cu m per year. It will eventually be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which will carry Azeri gas to Europe through Greece.
The Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (ICGB) project is being implemented by the joint venture company ICGB AD, registered in Bulgaria in 2011, with state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and Greece-registered IGI Poseidon holding equal shares. Greek public gas corporation DEPA and Italian energy group Edison own 50% each of IGI Poseidon.
($= 0.9388 euro)
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