BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.20
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
More than 20 kilometers of Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) have been welded, ICGB AD, project company, told Trend.
Talking about the effect of the automatic welding, the company said that three types of welding activities have been implemented on the IGB project by the EPC Contractor – manual, automatic and hybrid.
“The welding teams are working around the clock both in Greece and Bulgaria and the total length of the welded pipeline is now more than 20 km. We are expecting soon additional automatic and hybrid welding crews to be deployed on site. The manpower ramp-up should lead to significant increase of the daily rate and in turn contribute to the timely completion of the project,” said the company.
As for possible adjustments in the schedule of the project due to the restrictions caused by COVID-19 pandemic, the ICGB AD said that there is no reason to believe that there will be serious delays with the execution of the project.
“Being an international project IGB involves companies from different countries and its management is supported by a consortium of Belgian and Italian specialists. Therefore, the restrictions on free international travel, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, have a significant impact on the teams’ work. Moreover, since most of the workers on site are Greeks, they had to stay a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon entering the territory of Bulgaria and before they could start work. ICGB was able to respond quickly to the unexpected challenge. Cooperating in an excellent manner with our key contractors we managed to introduce a rigorous testing regime and ensure the safety of all personnel involved in the IGB project. At present we still have zero confirmed covid19 cases, hoping the optimistic trend will continue and also expressing our gratefulness to all site teams, who conscientiously comply with the imposed anti-epidemic measures,” said the company.
“We are closely monitoring the dynamics of the situation and so far we have no reason to believe that there will be serious delays with the execution of the project. ICGB is in constant communication with all the contractors on the project, exploring together different options to compensating the delays caused by the pandemic. Above all, we strive to protect the lives and health of all, so to a large extent our work depends on how the situation develops in the next few months - whether there are new travel restrictions, additional quarantine measures, etc.”
IGB project envisages the construction of a gas interconnector that will link the gas transmission systems of Greece and Bulgaria. The total length of the gas pipeline is 182.6 km, and its capacity for gas transmission is 3 billion cubic meters per year with the option to reach 5 billion cubic meters.
The route of the gas pipeline is divided into 7 main lots, the shortest being 9.55 km long and the longest - 71.90 km. 106 km of the route in Bulgaria will be completed with automatic welding, and the remaining 45 km - by manual welding.
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