Greece’s J&P AVAX filed the lowest offer in a tender to design and build a gas pipeline between Bulgaria and Greece, project manager ICGB said on Tuesday.
The company offered a price of 144.85 million euros ($163 million) to build a 182 km (113 mile) pipeline which Sofia hopes will become operational in 2020 to transport Azeri gas to Bulgaria and end its almost complete dependence on Russian gas supplies.
A consortium of two Bulgarian companies and Italy’s Bonatti submitted an offer of 229.3 million euros in the tender.
ICGB said it would examine the offers and pick a winner by the end of May. The pipeline will have an annual capacity of 3 billion cubic metres.
The European Commission has said it would invest 33 million euros of European Union funds in the project.
ICGB is 50 percent owned by Bulgaria’s state-held BEH energy holding company. The remaining shares are held by the Greek gas company DEPA and Italy’s Edison.
SOURCE / [Reuters]
