Local contractors are well-placed to pick up contracts to build the second phase of a pipeline to transport gas from Tabriz in Iran to Ankara.

The second phase pipeline is 1,420 kilometres long and will be laid in two sections - one from Erzurum to Sivas and another from Sivas to Ankara. A local consortium, Epsilon-AGE, offered a low bid of $43.1 million to build the first 450-kilometre section. Another local consortium, Kalyon Insaat-Kalyon Yapi, submitted a low bid of $37.8 million for the second 465-kilometre section.

The contract has attracted strong local and international interest. France's Sofregaz and SAE, Italy's Saipem and Russia's Stroytransgas and Rostneftgastroy are understood to have submitted bids.

A $117.6 million contract for the first phase of the pipeline - from Erzurum to the Iranian border - was awarded in the Spring to a local venture of STFA Enerkom and Fernas (MEED 11:4:97).

Iran will use the pipeline to supply gas to Turkey under a $18,000 million, 23-year gas supply agreement signed between the two countries in August 1996 (MEED 17:1:97).