The government will invite two tenders in a bid to complete the LNG project, one for remaining construction work on the jetty at the land-based facilities at Vasiliko, the other for acquiring a floating regasification unit, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou told MPs on Tuesday.
The first tender for the jetty, where the floating, storage and regasification unit (Fsru) unit will dock. The second tender is for an Fsru, which will convert LNG back into its gaseous form so that it can be fed to the Vasilikos power plant to generate electricity.
The government seeks to acquire an Fsru as a temporary fix and a backup, given that the vessel under the contract with the Chinese-led consortium is still tied up in Shanghai.
Both tenders are proceeding “at a fast pace” and the process has received the thumbs-up from the state treasury, Papanastasiou said.
Regarding the Prometheas vessel in Shanghai, the minister said the prospects of the Chinese-led consortium releasing it are remote.
It was still unclear who exactly is preventing the vessel from departing, he added.
The minister was briefing MPs at the House energy committee, convened extraordinarily to discuss the LNG project debacle.
In statements after the meeting, held behind closed doors, Papanastasiou affirmed the government’s determination to proceed with the implementation of the project, despite the termination of the contract with the Chinese consortium.
He added that the Natural Gas Infrastructure Company (Etyfa) would be going ahead with the two tenders soon.
“The project must be completed because it is very important for the import of natural gas and the reduction of the cost of conventional electricity,” Papanastasiou said.
He added, however, that options were now slim because there was no contract in place.
Etyfa, he said, as the owner of the project, is examining the next steps with the contribution of the energy ministry.
Regarding the floating unit, Papanastasiou said deliberations were continuing in all directions “because the vessel belongs to Etyfa and is not in its possession.”
“The vessel must be in the possession of Etyfa for it to use it to import natural gas to the terminal,” he explained.
Papanastasiou said his ministry had requested that the meeting be held behind closed doors to avoid the exploitation of any information that may be given.
Without going into detail, Papanastasiou said “something happened yesterday (Monday) at the arbitral tribunal” and for this reason “we cannot continue to give this information through the media.”
“The consortium’s legal advisers are very inventive,” he said, adding that the state wanted to protect Etyfa.
Akel general secretary Stefanos Stefanou said that the longer this “scandal” was being discussed, the more issues were arising, making the project more difficult to implement.
“The scandal around a bad contract made by the previous government of Anastasiades and Disy is indeed huge and is added to a long list of scandals,” he said.
Diko president Nikolas Papadopoulos said this was “the worst agreement the Republic of Cyprus has ever entered into” and referred to huge political responsibilities for the “fiasco” that left the republic “completely exposed”.
He added that the people of Cyprus have already paid €245 million for the contract and “we have neither a jetty nor a floating unit.”
Disy MP and chairman of the committee Kyriakos Hadjiyianni called on the state to enter negotiations with the consortium, despite the “attack” it is suffering.
“We have to think outside the box,” he said and welcomed the investigation into the whole issue.
Dipa MP Michalis Yiakoumi said “we want the project to move forward, but unfortunately the investigation must also proceed quickly, with full transparency.”
He also said it was imperative for the price of electricity to drop and welcomed the minister’s statements that developments in the LNG issue were imminent.
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