Eleven candidates have filed applications to take part in a tender to build the Bulgarian section of the South Stream gas pipeline, the state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) said.
The deadline for filing applications expired on Friday, BEH said in a statement on its website. It did not disclose the names of the candidates, nor give name a date by which they will be shortlisted.
South Stream, initiated by Russia's Gazprom and Italy's Eni, aims to diversify gas routes within the European Union and to provide stable gas supplies from Russia to central and southern Europe. The onshore pipeline will connect Varna on the Black Sea to northern Italy, via Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia. The Bulgarian section is estimated to cost 3.5 billion euro ($4.74 billion).
South Stream is planned to go on stream by the end of 2015 with a pipeline capacity of some 63 billion cubic meters per year.