Greek company delaying Cyprus re: Great Sea project (Updated)

By Tom Cleaver and Nikolaos Prakas

Cyprus responded to Greece’s warnings over Nicosia missing deadlines for the Great Sea Interconnector undersea cable project, saying on Friday that they are still waiting for the Greek company to submit an updated cost-benefit analysis.

According to Energy Minister George Papanastasiou, who is in Tokyo, Cyprus is well within its rights to request an updated cost-benefit analysis before investing in the €100 million project.

Papanastasiou said the last cost-benefit was done in 2017, when the project was still being handled by EuroAsia, and has since changed hands to Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (Admie).

“The sooner these studies are submitted by Admie, the sooner the Cypriot government will take the final investment decision,” he said.

He also stressed that the government does not wish to participate in the project simply for the sake of the project, but has the Cypriot consumer as its primary concern.

The cabinet had in principle taken the decision to participate in the project with €100 million but requested an update of the cost-benefit analysis before making the final investment decision.

“The Cypriot government is entitled to request an updated cost-benefit study, as well as an updated business plan,” Papanastasiou told the Cyprus News Agency, emphasising that the study was done in 2017 by the previous implementing agency (EuroAsia) and that things have changed since then, while the business plan was prepared in 2017 with a slight update in 2023.

Earlier, Greek Energy Minister Theodoros Skylakakis had warned Cyprus against missing deadlines regarding the Great Sea Interconnector.

The deadlines he was referring to pertain to the European Commission’s financial support for the plan under its Connecting Europe Facility, and an extra €100m pledged through the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Speaking to Greek newspaper Imerisia at the Delphi economic forum, he said “the case is that we took on a serious responsibility together with the Cypriot side, after the Commission had evaluated the project and had given us a huge investment in this project.”

“If this investment is lost, the chance of Cyprus being connected to the rest of Europe, and of the entire cable being realised, will be dramatically reduced.”

He added, “that is something which the Cypriot government will also have to evaluate.”

He went on to say that his government’s responsibility is to protect Greek consumers and taxpayers, and seemed to indicate that his government’s patience may be running out with Cyprus.

The Cypriot government is currently still in the phase of discussing conditions, with a final decision expected to be made by cabinet at some point in the future. Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (Admie) asked Cyprus at the start of March to pay its €100m financial share in the project.

Skylakakis said Greece “has shown a surplus of good will on this matter to help to try to not lose this project,” and emphasised again the possibility that the whole project may fall apart if Cyprus does not make a decision.

However, he made indications that he will not be willing to wait for ever for Cyprus to come to a decision, saying “our final analysis will be based on our most important responsibility – to the Greek consumers and taxpayers.”

“For Greece, this project is positive as it facilitates a balancing of our electricity network, but it is not a critical project. Greece is not an island, in energy terms,” he added.

Therefore, he said, “for Greece, the important part from our point of view is of course for the project to come to fruition, but to look out for the interests of the Greek people first.”

He ended by repeating that “it must be absolutely clear that if the funding from the European Commission is lost, the probability of this project ever being carried out will be reduced dramatically.”

The Great Sea Interconnector is a planned undersea cable which would connect the electrical systems of Israel, Cyprus, and Greece, via the island of Crete.

Admie owns a 51 per cent stake in the project, which will be jointly owned with Cyprus’ Transmission System Operator (TSO) should Cyprus pay its €100m buy-in.

Construction of the first cables on Crete began in December last year.