June 13 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian state-owned natural gas transmission network operator Bulgartransgaz said that two tie-ups have placed bids in a 351 million levs ($203 million/180 million euro) tender for the construction of two compressor stations needed in order to extend the TurkStream pipeline through Bulgaria.
The two candidates are a consortium of local company Klimatronik, Belarus-based construction company Alvora, Ukraine's Poltavaspezmontage and Spanish infrastructure consulting company TEC Cuatro, and another consortium comprising Bulgaria's Glavbolgarstroy and Germany's Ferrostaal Industrieanlagen, Bulgartransgaz said in a statement on Wednesday.
The tender envisages investment project design, the supply of the materials and equipment and the construction works of two compressor stations in Provadiya and Rasovo, in the northeastern and southwestern part of the country, respectively.
Bids will be ranked based on price, which will form 60% of the final mark, and technical criteria.
In April Bulgartransgaz picked a tie-up comprising Saudi Arabia's Arkad Engineering and Construction Company and Italy-registered Arkad ABB to build a 484 km pipeline for transit of natural gas from the border with Turkey to the border with Serbia, but later replaced it with the second-ranked candidate - a consortium comprising Italy's Consorzio Varna 1 and the Bulgarian branch of Luxembourg-registered Completions Development.
At the end of January, Bulgartransgaz completed the binding Phase 3 of the economic test for the project - part of a larger project of Russia's Gazprom to build a string of its TurkStream pipeline for transit of gas to Europe from Turkey via Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.
The offshore section of the TurkStream pipeline stretching 930 km across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey consists of two parallel strings with annual throughput capacity of 15.75 billion cubic metres of gas each. One string is intended for consumers in Turkey, while the second will carry gas to customers in Europe.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)