diff --git a/b/BCFtools/BCFtools-1.8-intel-2017a.eb b/b/BCFtools/BCFtools-1.8-intel-2017a.eb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..25d7f679
--- /dev/null
+++ b/b/BCFtools/BCFtools-1.8-intel-2017a.eb
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+easyblock = 'ConfigureMake'
+
+name = 'BCFtools'
+version = '1.8'
+
+homepage = 'http://www.htslib.org/'
+description = """Samtools is a suite of programs for interacting with high-throughput sequencing data.
+ BCFtools - Reading/writing BCF2/VCF/gVCF files and calling/filtering/summarising SNP and short indel sequence variants"""
+
+toolchain = {'name': 'intel', 'version': '2017a'}
+toolchainopts = {'optarch': True, 'pic': True}
+
+sources = [SOURCELOWER_TAR_BZ2]
+source_urls = ['https://github.com/samtools/%(namelower)s/releases/download/%(version)s']
+
+#patches = ['BCFtools-%(version)s_extHTSlib_Makefile.patch']
+
+dependencies = [
+    ('zlib', '1.2.11', '', True),
+    ('HTSlib', '1.8'),
+    ('GSL', '2.3'),
+    ('XZ', '5.2.3', '', True),
+]
+
+parallel = 1
+
+skipsteps = ['configure']
+
+buildopts = 'CC="$CC" CFLAGS="$CFLAGS" USE_GSL=1'
+installopts = ' prefix=%(installdir)s'
+
+postinstallcmds = [
+    'mkdir -p %(installdir)s/lib/plugins',
+    'cp -a plugins/*.so %(installdir)s/lib/plugins/.',
+]
+
+sanity_check_paths = {
+    'files': ['bin/%s' % x for x in ['bcftools', 'plot-vcfstats', 'vcfutils.pl']],
+    'dirs': ['lib/plugins'],
+}
+
+moduleclass = 'bio'
diff --git a/h/HTSlib/HTSlib-1.8-intel-2017a.eb b/h/HTSlib/HTSlib-1.8-intel-2017a.eb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4a3046d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/h/HTSlib/HTSlib-1.8-intel-2017a.eb
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+easyblock = 'ConfigureMake'
+
+name = 'HTSlib'
+version = '1.8'
+
+homepage = "http://www.htslib.org/"
+description = """ A C library for reading/writing high-throughput sequencing data.
+ This package includes the utilities bgzip and tabix """
+
+toolchain = {'name': 'intel', 'version': '2017a'}
+
+source_urls = ['https://github.com/samtools/%(namelower)s/releases/download/%(version)s/']
+sources = [SOURCELOWER_TAR_BZ2]
+
+dependencies = [
+   ('zlib', '1.2.11', '', True),
+   ('XZ', '5.2.3', '', True), 
+]
+
+sanity_check_paths = {
+    'files': ["bin/bgzip", "bin/tabix", "lib/libhts.%s" % SHLIB_EXT],
+    'dirs': [],
+}
+
+moduleclass = 'bio'
diff --git a/s/SAMtools/SAMtools-1.8-intel-2017a.eb b/s/SAMtools/SAMtools-1.8-intel-2017a.eb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0dbca6c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/s/SAMtools/SAMtools-1.8-intel-2017a.eb
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+name = 'SAMtools'
+version = '1.8'
+
+homepage = 'http://www.htslib.org/'
+description = """SAM Tools provide various utilities for manipulating alignments in the SAM format, 
+ including sorting, merging, indexing and generating alignments in a per-position format."""
+
+toolchain = {'name': 'intel', 'version': '2017a'}
+toolchainopts = {'optarch': True, 'pic': True}
+
+source_urls = ['https://github.com/samtools/%(namelower)s/releases/download/%(version)s']
+sources = [SOURCELOWER_TAR_BZ2]
+
+# Patch Makefile to link against zlib provided by EB
+#patches = ['SAMtools-1.3_Makefile.patch']
+
+dependencies = [
+    ('ncurses', '6.0', '', True),
+    ('zlib', '1.2.11', '', True),
+    ('XZ', '5.2.3', '', True),
+]
+
+moduleclass = 'bio'