VILNIUS - Lithuania's natural gas utility Lietuvos Dujos (Lithuanian Gas) awarded a contract for a 11.9 million euro gas project to Germany's PBGSA last week.
"The technical and financial bid tendered by Germany's PBGSA was the most acceptable for us," Jonas Janulionis, Lietuvos Dujos technical director, said. "Next week we will send the company a draft contract, which will be signed in 28 days."
The project calls for laying down new gas mains and building a new gas metering station.
"The building works may be launched in mid-September," Janulionis said.
PBGSA will build a 100-kilometer-long gas main that will connect Pabrade with the town of Visaginas, in northern Lithuania, which is home to Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant.
Lietuvos Dujos coordinated the tender with the help of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which will administer the funds and grants of the international INPP decommissioning fund. The bank pledged to assign 12.9 million euros for the project under a contract signed last December.
The project will also be financed by Lietuvos Dujos, the fund on decommissioning of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant and the Danish Energy Agency.
The gas mains should be ready for operations by August 2005. They will supply natural gas to the boiler houses of Visaginas and the nuclear power plant.
The demand in natural gas in Visaginas is expected to range from 4 million to 14.7 million cubic meters per year in 2005-2009 and to hit 105 million cubic meters in 2010 after the shutdown of Ignalina's second reactor.
The remaining six tender bidders were issued notifications about the award of contract to PBGSA, Janulionis added.
Complaints against the tender results might be submitted in a 10-day period.