Baku, Azerbaijan, March 17
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
A public meeting for opening of the requests for participation in the restricted procedure for line pipes manufacture and supply for the needs of gas interconnector Greece-Bulgaria was held on March 16 in the office of the project company ICGB AD, said a message from the company.
In the presence of media representatives, the Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova announced the start of the session for opening of all submitted before the deadline requests.
Ten requests for participation have been submitted to the procurement procedure, with interest from both Bulgarian and other European countries as well as from other continents.
The submitted requests are from the following candidates:
1. Jindaw SAW Ltd.
2. JSC "Zagorsk Pipe Plant"
3. Welspun Corp. Limited
4. Salzgitter Mannesmann International GmbH
5. Ноксел Челик Бору Санайи А.Ш
6. Umran Celik Boru Sanayii A.S
7. Erciyas Celik Boru Sanayi A.S (Erciyas Steel Pipe Co)
8. Топливо -2 ЕООД
9. Korinth Pipeworks S.A Pipe Industry S.A
10. Public Joint Stock Company "Chelyabinsk Pipe Plant"
Today's procedure is a restricted one, meaning that it will take place in two stages - a pre-selection phase and a phase of examining, evaluating and ranking offers. The project company has chosen this type of procedure as it provides sufficient time for all stakeholders to participate. Under the current procedural order, in the first phase all applicants willing to participate submit only documents of compliance with the selection criteria. Offers shall be submitted only by participants who have passed the pre-selection phase. This saves the candidates’ resources for preparing the offer and significantly reduces the administrative burden.
For the second stage of the procedure, invitations will be sent only to the candidates who have passed the pre-selection. ICGB will invite only five candidates for the second phase of the selection. As of now, the planned date for sending the invitations is April 20, 2018.
According to the contractual strategy adopted by ICGB, the supply of line pipes is assigned separately from the main procurement contract for the engineering, procurement, construction and supply of equipment. The main procurement for the award of the construction, which will also be a limited two-phase procedure, is expected to be announced in the beginning of April. By the end of the first half of the year, tenders for the assigning of archaeological research and construction supervision will also be announced.
IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets.
The initial capacity of IGB will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn