Signs of progress on maritime border between Lebanon and Israel - THE NATIONAL

Nabih Berri supportS larger UN role in the border dispute. AP

April 25, 2019 01:34 PM

Sunniva Rose and Joyce Karam

The US has been actively mediating, and ideas for United Nations supervision role are under consideration

Lebanon says it is ready to demarcate its maritime border with Israel, following US mediation efforts and attempts backed by Cyprus and Greece to broker a deal under United Nations (UN) supervision governing both land and sea borders.

“Lebanon is ready to delineate the maritime borders and the special economic zone through the mechanism adopted for the demarcation of the blue line under the supervision of the United Nations”, Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri said on Tuesday.

Mr Berri was speaking during a meeting with Major General Stefano Del Col, head of mission and force commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the Lebanese state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Gen Del Col agreed that a UN role in the talks could strengthen maritime security and stability. In the absence of a demarcation, UNIFIL has historically used an unofficial land border, known as a blue line, between Lebanon and Israel land border to maintain peace. Both sides have agreed to the blue line.

ICGB selects contractor for supervision for construction of the gas interconnector Greece-Bulgaria - ICGB AD

24/APRIL/2019

The project company finalized one of the last key public procurements to start the construction work for the IGB project

The project company ICGB successfully completed the public procurement procedure with subject “Selection of contractor for construction supervision for the construction of the gas interconnector Greece-Bulgaria”. Three offers were submitted within the announced deadline. The estimated value of the public procurement is BGN 1 300 000 excluding VAT.

The construction supervision will be carried out by the joint venture “EKO BUL CONTROL”, which consists of three legal entities: ECOENGINEERING LTD, BUL STROY CONTROL ENGINEERING and CONTROL ENGINEERING. The selection of a contractor for this procedure is based on the selection criteria price/quality ratio. The total cost for the construction supervision activities for the IGB gas pipeline proposed by “EKO BUL CONTROL” is BGN 766 000 excluding VAT.

"The finalization of this procedure is a great success for the project as the tender for construction supervision is one of the key steps to ensuring the management of the construction in the most professional and efficient way", announced the Executive Officers of ICGB Teodora Georgieva and Konstantinos Karayannakos.

J&P AVAX files lowest bid to build Bulgaria-Greece gas link - KATHIMERINI / REUTERS

TUESDAY APRIL 23, 2019, 15:04

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.