“The assessment of possibilities for safe operation of a strategically important facility is our main goal. It will be achieved through advanced surveys set forth in the work program. We will notify the community of the district of Telšiai and the general public about wheter or not the storage facility could be built in the second half of 2013, after the completion of all surveys,” Lietuvos Energija CEO, Dalius Misiūnas, said in a press release.
Exploratory works on the underground natural gas storage facility will cost extra 18.3 million litas (EUR 5.3 mln), of which 6.2 million litas will have to be provided by Lietuvos Energija.
Last year, Lietuvos Energija discontinued talks with Lotos Geonafta, a Polish-owned oil production and exploration company, on boring and surveying work on the underground natural gas storage facility, stating that the price bid by the company, which is owned by Poland’s second largest oil group Lotos, was too high.
Lietuvos Energija expected that lower bids would be submitted in the new tender.
Misiūnas told BNS earlier that the talks with Lotos Geonafta had been terminated since the price bid by the company, which was the sole bidder in a respective tender, was too high. He expected the scale of works to remain largely unchanged after correction (at approx. LTL 18 mln).
The tender was announced on Feb. 14 and the bids will be accepted by Mar. 15, according to the announcement published on the Central Public Procurement Portal.
