Arkad, an Arab-Italian consortium, submitted the lowest bid — €1.1 billion – to build a pipeline to take Russian gas across Bulgaria, from Turkey to Serbia,

Arkad, an Arab-Italian consortium, submitted the lowest bid — €1.1 billion – to build a pipeline to take Russian gas across Bulgaria, from Turkey to Serbia, reports Novinite, a Sofia-based news service. Vladimir Malinov, executive director of Bulgartransgaz, said Friday the tender winner will be announced in April. The winner will have 250 days, about eight months, to build the gas line. Running under the Black Sea from Anapa, Russia, TurkStream made landfall last week on the Turkish coast near Kıyıköy. Gas is to start flowing on Jan. 1. Of the 15.8 billion cubic meters arriving at the Bulgarian-Turkish border, deliveries are to be: 11 bcm to the Serbian border, 9 bcm to the Hungarian border, and 4.3 bcm to Slovakia.