BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.4
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The EPC contractor - the Greek company AVAX - is finishing up with the works on the linear part of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) and current estimates indicate completion within the month of February, ICGB’s Executive Officer on the Bulgarian side Teodora Georgieva said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
She noted that as of end of January, over 80 percent of all construction activities on IGB project have been completed.
“The hydrotests in Greece are now successfully carried out, and the same activity is already progressing in Bulgaria as well, with 4 out of 11 sections completed. Overall, more than 60 percent of the entire route has been successfully hydrotested which is a significant milestone for the project. At the same time, work actively continues on the above ground installations that are also part of the project and fall under the EPC contract - we’re talking about two gas metering stations near the Greek city of Komotini and the Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora, eight block valve stations and a dispatching center near the Bulgarian city of Haskovo,” said the executive officer.
Georgieva pointed out that the gas metering station near Stara Zagora is now exceeding 70 percent completion and is progressing well.
“ICGB was notified by the contractor that there were significant delays in the delivery of equipment for the gas metering station near Komotini and for now this is the most critical part of the project left for completion. We’re in constant contact with the EPC contractor in order to track his weekly progress and to find ways to assist and speed up the work, if and where that is possible,” she said.
The executive officer went on to add that given the key importance of the IGB project both for Greece and Bulgaria - and for the entire SEE region in the current situation, all parties involved are determined to push for entering commercial operations in July 2022.
“For the construction we’re entirely depending on the EPC contractor to do the job in the most time efficient way possible while maintaining high standards, of course, but for the administrative and certification procedures we’re looking for ways to reduce the usual required time in order to make up for the construction delay. The national government of Greece and Bulgaria have committed to aiding us with speeding up the administrative procedures and I’m hopeful that with joint efforts the pipeline will be implemented this summer,” she added.
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