US-headquartered Hill International has won two contracts together worth around $270m to help modify Bulgaria’s gas pipeline network so it can ship liquified natural gas (LNG) brought to Greece from the US and elsewhere northward to Romania and on to Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
Planned since 2016 by Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Hungary, the so-called “Vertical Gas Corridor” aims to create a north-south transmission axis ahead of the expected suspension of Russian gas shipments through Ukraine from 2025.
Since then, gas transmission companies from Slovakia, Moldova, and Ukraine have got involved.
The Hill team includes US and Bulgarian engineers and contractors.
Announcing the contracts on 6 June, Bulgarian Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev said the new corridor would “establish itself as infrastructure of major importance for the entire region”.
‘Decouple from Russian gas’
Speaking about the scheme in March, US Assistant Secretary for Energy Resources, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, said: “Using existing infrastructure from Greece up to Ukraine, the Vertical Corridor will allow LNG imported through Greece to fill the vast storage tanks in Ukraine, providing a new source of gas for Central Europe and the Western Balkans, and helping to reduce price volatility along the way.”
“It will also be crucial in supporting the EU’s intention to fully decouple from Russian gas by 2027,” he added.
Pyatt was US Ambassador to Greece from 2016 to 2022, and to Ukraine from 2013 to 2016.
Increasing north-south capacity
Working for gas company Bulgartransgaz, the Hill team will increase north-south transit capacity by building extra pipelines – known as “looping” – along two routes.
One is a 50km stretch between the towns of Kulata and Kresna, a contract valued at around $73m.
The other, worth some $197m, involves looping a 70km stretch between Rupcha and Vetrino.
These two are the biggest of three looping contracts designed to create the corridor.
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