GASTRANS invites non-binding bids for reservation of capacities for natural gas pipeline

The anticipated commercial operation date is 1 October 2019, however this is subject to possible change. The current design of the pipeline foresees one entry point on the Serbian-Bulgarian border (location of the territory of the municipality of Zajecar), and four exit points: (i) first near town of Paracin, Paracin Municipality, the Republic of Serbia; (ii) second near City of Pancevo, the Republic of Serbia; (iii) third near Gospodinci, Žabalj municipality, the Republic of Serbia, (iv) and forth exit point on the Serbian –Hungarian border (location near town of Horgoš, on the territory of the municipality of Kanjiža). The design pressure of 7,4 MPa, the maximum allowed operating pressure (MAOP) of 6,6 MPa on the borders and operating range between 6,4MPa and 6,6MPa on the Entry Point, between 6 MPa and 6,6 MPa on the Exit Point Serbia-Paracin and between 6,5MPa and 6,6MPa on the Exit Points Horgoš, Serbia-Pancevo and Serbia-Gospodinci, is currently planned.

Considering construction of the described pipeline, Gastrans d.o.o. assesses that the realization thereof is possible only under the condition of exemption of the pipeline from the regulatory requirements, due to which it has on 2 February 2018 submitted to the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia (AERS) the request for its exemption from obligations of: (i) organizing of transmission system operator (operator’s unbundling), (ii) regulated third party access, and (iii) applicability of regulated prices, in line with the article 288 of the Energy Law implementing conditions for deciding on the right to exemption for new infrastructure facilities from the article 36 of the Directive 2009/73/EC.

For the purpose of determining demand of the natural gas market and characteristics of the pipeline more precisely, Gastrans d.o.o., in line with the Decision no. 40/2018-?-03/1 of AERS (which is published on the website http://www.aers.rs/), by this public invitation.

INVITES

All parties interested in using the capacities of the future pipeline to submit to Gastrans d.o.o. non-binding bids for reservation of the capacities of this pipeline.

Interested parties are requested to register by delivering the duly populated and executed: (i) Registration Form and (ii) Non-Disclosure Agreement, accompanied with the proof on paid Registration Fee, at latest on and including 5 April 2018, each in PDF format submitted to Gastrans d.o.o. by sending the Registration Form, the NDA and the proof on paid Registration Fee to the e- mail address: info@gastrans.rs, using the following words as subject of the e-mail: “Gastrans Pipeline Market Test – Expression of Interest Phase - Registration”.

Gastrans d.o.o. shall confirm receipt of the registration by e-mail.

The Registration Form should be populated in Serbian or English language and duly signed by an authorized representative of the interested party in accordance with the instructions from the Registration Form. Interested parties are not authorized to alter the Registration Form.

The NDA should be populated in both Serbian and English language and duly signed by an authorized representative of the interested party in accordance with the instructions from the NDA.

The Registration Fee in the amount of EUR 5,000 shall be paid to the following bank account at Banca Intesa a.d.: 160-4473-43 IBAN: RS35160005380000095158

The Registration Form and the NDA are available for download at www.gastrans.rs/en/market_test.

Interested parties that have registered will receive from Gastrans d.o.o. as a reply to the registration e-mail, the NDA executed by Gastrans d.o.o. and the additional documents being: (i) Additional Information on the Project, (ii) Heads of Terms relating to the Gas Transportation Agreement and the Gastrans Network Code and (iii) HoT Form for comments to the Heads of Terms.

Interested parties that have registered are requested to deliver the duly populated and executed Bid Form in two copies, as well as HoT Form if applicable, at latest on and including 15 April 2018, each in PDF format submitted to Gastrans d.o.o and AERS by sending one copy of the Bid Form to the e- mail address of Gastrans d.o.o.: info@gastrans.rs, with the second copy of the Bid Form sent to the e-mail address of AERS: aers@aers.rs, using the following words as subject of the e-mails: “Gastrans Pipeline Market Test – Expression of Interest Phase - Non-binding bid”.

Gastrans d.o.o. shall confirm receipt of the bid by e-mail.

The Bid Form should be populated in Serbian or English language and duly signed by an authorized representative of the Applicant in accordance with the instructions from the Bid Form. Applicants are not authorized to alter the Bid Form.

The Bid Form is available at www.gastrans.rs/en/market_test.

The deadline for submitting non-binding bids will expire at 15:00 CET on 15 April 2018, and the aggregated final results will be published not later than 30 April 2018.

The deadline for submitting the HoT Form, if not submitted together with the Bid Form, will expire at 15:00 CET on 30 April 2018.

The bidders are invited to provide in the bid all data requested by the Bid Form, especially the quantity and type of required capacity, required points of entry/exit and duration of the reservation at their convenience for a standard duration of 5, 10, 15 or 20 years, starting from the provisional pipeline commercial operation date or from any gas year starting after provisional pipeline commercial operation date until 1 October 2039.

All Serbian entrepreneurs and Serbian and foreign legal entities, as well as the TSOs, shareholders of Gastrans d.o.o. and their subsidiaries and affiliates, are entitled to submit the bid and shall submit such bid under the same conditions as other third parties.

All bids submitted upon this invitation will be collected for the sole purpose of non-binding natural gas market test and shall not bind either the bidder or Gastrans d.o.o. in any form, e.g. to enter into a reservation contract / a contract on the provision of natural gas transmission services.

Bidders shall suffer no financial or economic consequences in case of abandoning their bid.

Only those entities which submit the bid upon this public invitation will be entitled to, upon the invitation of Gastrans d.o.o., participate as bidders and submit binding bid in the subsequent binding capacity allocation phase, for the purpose of entering into the gas transportation agreement. Gastrans d.o.o. will announce the details of the binding capacity allocation at a later date, provided that upon this public invitation the interest of the natural gas market is sufficient for realization of this project.

The pipeline project, in respect of the maximum capacity offered, will be determined depending on the results of the market test for pipeline capacities on the basis of non-binding bids submitted in accordance with this public invitation. Depending on the results obtained by market test upon this public invitation, Gastrans d.o.o. will evaluate necessity and possibility to adjust technical and economical characteristics of the planned pipeline with the scope and duration of the requested exemption.

Details of the bidders, as well as the content of the bid shall be kept by Gastrans d.o.o. confidential, provided that the bidders designate such data as confidential in submitted bids. Data designated by the bidder as confidential business data, will be protected by Gastrans d.o.o. in line with the laws of the Republic of Serbia, whereby Gastrans d.o.o. has the right and obligation to accompany the notification to AERS on results of a non-binding natural gas market test with all bids, for the purpose of deciding on the request for exemption. Gastrans d.o.o. may also use the data from the bids submitted upon this public invitation in preparing the feasibility studies for the pipeline, as well as in the procedures before the authorities of the Republic of Serbia and competent international bodies and their members that are entitled to participate in the deciding on the exemption of the pipeline pursuant to the Energy Law.

Requests for further information on the conditions and the content of this public invitation interested parties may request at latest on the seventh day before but not including the deadline date for the submission of bids. Questions on public invitation can be made by e-mail to the following e-mail address: info@gastrans.rs. All answers will be provided within three days from the receipt of the request and all questions and answers will be published on Gastrans d.o.o. website without providing data on the entity requesting the information.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/05032018/gastrans-invites-non-binding-bids-for-reservation-of-capacities-for-natural-gas-pipeline/