Bulgaria’s Regional Development Ministry has launched a tender for the assignment of a public procurement related to the Bulgarian section of the offshore section of the South Stream gas pipeline.

The winner of the tender, worth nearly BGN 66 000, will have to prepare a methodology for determining the amount of the easement compensation for the Pasha Dere beach near Varna, according to reports of dnevnik.bg.

The winner of the tender will also have to conduct an appraisal of the building lease for the seabed.

The deadline for the submission of bids is April 9, 2015.

The announcement reminds that the offshore section of the South Stream gas pipeline consists of four parallel lines carrying gas from Russia’s Anapa to Bulgaria’s Varna via the Black Sea.

The four lines run through Bulgaria’s territorial sea and surface via a micro-tunnel under the Pasha Dere-1 beach to reach the ground facilities near compressor station South Stream Bulgaria AD.

The announcement for the tender was published despite the declaration of Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 1 that Russia had decided to withdraw from the South Stream gas pipeline project.

Russia’s decision to quit the gas pipeline project was subsequently confirmed by Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Maros Sefcovic, EU commission Vice-President in charge of energy.

Bulgarian authorities, however, have been evasive on the matter, with Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev stating on December 16 that it was still difficult to say whether the South Stream project had been conclusively abandoned and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov declaring in mid-February that South Stream had not been suspended from a legal point of view.

A detailed site development plan is in force for the Bulgarian stretch of the offshore section of the South Stream gas pipeline.

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