Greece-Bulgaria gas pipeline project completes next tender

ICGB successfully completed the procedure for selection of Owner’s Engineer for the gas interconnector Greece- Bulgaria

The selection of Owner’s Engineer is one of three key tenders for the completion of the project; A consortium with Bulgarian and foreign participation will be responsible for the control and realization of the IGB interconnector.

The project company ICGB successfully completed the public procurement procedure with subject “Selection of Owner’s Engineer for the Greece-Bulgaria natural gas interconnector project (IGB)”. After launching an open procedure, the Commission assigned by ICGB selected the consortium „TIBEI“ as a contractor.

The owner’s engineer is key for management and control of the realization of the IGB project in the preparation phase and during the implementation of the construction process. The commitment involves assisting the Contracting Entity in the implementation of the project during the construction phase until the pipeline enters into operation and management of all the main contracts related to the project – including the contract for the supply of line pipes and the contract for the award of design, procurement and construction.

The selection of the contractor has been made by applying the indicators and the evaluation methodology set by the Contracting Entity. The Commission has found that the consortium „TIBEI“ has submitted the most economically favorable offer according to the price/quality ratio criteria. The consortium has offered the most economical price for the main package of services – EUR 5 670 000.00. “TIBEI” is a consortium of foreign and Bulgarian companies including the following members: Tractebel Engineering S.A (Belgium), Tractebel Engineering SRL (Italy), INTBER GMBH (registered in Austria), Ipsilon Consult OOD (Bulgaria) and Engineering EAD (Bulgaria).

The Executive Officer from Bulgarian side Teodora Georgieva expressed satisfaction that the Project Company managed to complete this extremely important procurement, which ensures the management of the construction in the most professional and efficient way possible.

“This is one of the most important milestones that secure the realization of the IGB project. The selection was extremely important to us as the owner’s engineer is a key figure for the project. The successful completion of this procedure brings us closer to the start of the construction work”, said Georgieva. The Executive Officer from Greek side Konstantinos Karayannakos expressed certainty that the project company will have the opportunity, through an external consultant, selected in an objective and transparent way, to apply the best engineering practices in the project management. “This will contribute to the realization of the project according to the scheduled timeframe and the planned budget,” added Karayannakos.

The open procedure was launched at the end of 2017 but due to appeals against actions of the Contracting Entity, it was suspended for a period of about 10 months.

In September 2018 twelve companies and consortiums submitted offers for participation in the open procedure.

Offers have been received from the following participants:

1. MGV Consultant
2. TECHINT – COMPAGNIA TECNICA INTERNAZIONALE S.p.A. & TECHFEM S.p.A.
3. Enereco S.p.A.
4. TECHNIP ITALY DIREZIONE LAVORI S.p.A.
5. C&M-Asprofos-S Energy-Miks
6. Consortium Consult Eurogas
7. Consortium RINA
8. ILF Beratende Ingenieure GmbH
9. Consortium „TIBEI“
10. T&T SISTEMI SRL
11. VN gazoprovod Greece-Bulgaria
12. Association JV Interconnector 2018

As a result of the review of compliance of the participants with the requirements of the Public Procurement Documentation and the selection criteria to the evaluation are admitted:

1. Enereco S.p.A.
2. TECHNIP ITALY DIREZIONE LAVORI S.p.A.
3. C&M-Asprofos-S Energy-Miks
4. Consortium „TIBEI“

The Minutes of Meeting and the Reports of the Evaluation Committee are publicly available at the website of the project company ensuring full transparency of the actions for admissibility, evaluation and ranking.

The estimated value of the public procurement is set at a total amount of EUR 8.45 million excluding VAT.

The project company would like to thank all the participants for the participation in the procedure, the submitted offers, the expressed commercial interest and the achieved good level of competition.

The IGB Project (Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria) is being implemented by the joint venture company ICGB AD, registered in Bulgaria in 2011, with shareholders BEH EAD (50%) and IGI Poseidon (50%). The co-shareholder IGI Poseidon is a company, registered in Greece, with shareholders being the Greek public gas corporation DEPA SA (50%) and the Italian energy group Edison SpA (50%).

In accordance with its Statute, ICGB AD will be the owner of the IGB gas pipeline and will finance its realization, will allocate its capacity and will receive the revenue from the transportation of natural gas. 

The IGB gas pipeline will be connected with the Greek national gas transmission system in the area of Komotini and with the Bulgarian national gas transmission system in the area of Stara Zagora. The planned length of the pipeline is 182 km, the pipeline diameter will be 32” and the projected capacity will be up to 3 bcm/y in the direction from Greece to Bulgaria. Depending on the interest from the market and the capacities of the neighboring gas transmission systems, the pipeline is designed for increasing its capacity up to 5 bcm/y for following up the market evolution thus allowing physical reverse flow (from Bulgaria to Greece) with the additional installation of a compressor station. A Memorandum for cooperation between ICGB AD and TAP AG has been signed concerning joint actions in relation to future connection between the IGB pipeline and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.