Representatives of the Turkish company “Igdash”, which is a distributor of natural gas in Istanbul, as Dnevnik reports, have already been in Macedonia and showed interest in the government’s public call for gasification of the capital.
The public -private partnership contract, which will be concluded with a company that will give the best offer, includes its obligation to finance, design, build, operate, maintain and develop a distribution system for natural gas in the Skopje region, which includes all urban and suburban communities.
More companies are interested
- The Turkish company has extensive experience and supplies Istanbul with natural gas, and is already known to the authorities in the country, since symposium dedicated to the distribution of natural gas was organized in Skopje in 2010 in its organization. The symposium was attended by senior representatives of the natural gas sector and energy of Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova and Slovenia. The company has made a preliminary feasibility study for the construction of infrastructure for natural gas in Skopje, and for this purpose they conducted talks with “Arsis”, Dnevnik writes.
The newspaper reports that it is expected that the Turkish company will not be the only one interested in gasification of Skopje because talks are conducted with companies from Switzerland, Slovenia and Italy.
Dnevnik: The home companies with consortium
Domestic companies, however, are seriously considering a consortium that will offer partnership to the selected foreign company.
The Government’s Public call lasts until 27 May, and the company that will build the gasification in Skopje is expected to be chosen by September.
The duration of the contract will be 20 years, and the network will be transferred to a state – owned company.
175 km network will be built
The future concessionaire will have to build a 175 km network in the first five years, 51 percent in urban communities and 20 percent in suburban. It is estimated that the first customers will receive natural gas in 2016.