Filenews 13 April 2025 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
Through very delicate balances and conflicting interests of private individuals, with threads reaching three countries, the Natural Gas Infrastructure Company (ETYFA) is moving into the final stage of its negotiations, at various levels, for the resumption of the construction works of the natural gas terminal in Vassilikos.
The priorities of the state-owned company are at this time two, and they are both extremely urgent:
- To complete within the next few days the agreement with a large European (not Greek) company that will assume a central role in coordinating everything that needs to be done in the next 12-18 months in order to run the unfinished projects and to deliver an operational LNG regasification infrastructure to ETYFA and, at the same time,
- to find a legal way so that, especially the works for the completion of the pier (which is only one part of the delayed infrastructure), are awarded as soon as possible to companies or a consortium that are able to get to work immediately, without the need for lengthy procedures of new bids and evaluations.
The information of the Liberal Party states that ETYFA has done a lot of work in both directions in recent days, in very adverse conditions and serious - and suspicious - distractions from the outside. Although there are now several chances that there will be a positive outcome to the negotiations that are underway during Holy Week, there are still problems - legal and financial - that make the effort difficult.
Other information indicates that there are matters, delaying and divisive interventions in the efforts of DEFA and ETYFA by interests affiliated to the Chinese CPP, without it being confirmed that the top management of this company is officially involved in them.
CPP had collaborated with the VPSM consortium, consisting of the Cypriot company Multimarine Services and a company of the Greek group Spanopoulos Group. This consortium had progressed to a significant extent the work on the pier, but in 2023 the CPP unilaterally terminated the cooperation and the works stopped. The consortium and the companies that compose it have appealed to the Court to claim their accruals, which amount to tens of millions.
At the same time, negotiations are being held by ETYFA for the subcontractor to undertake the completion of the unfinished pier, on the basis of a very intensive schedule, as it is considered that it is, from a technical point of view, in an advantageous position to proceed with these projects quickly, due to its preparatory work and investments as a subcontractor of CPP. For the other infrastructure in the land area, tenders will be announced, under the auspices of the project manager who will be selected in the coming days. For the utilization of the subcontractor, a positive legal opinion has been obtained from the legal advisors of ETYFA in London.
Monitors and records
However, as we have mentioned above, private interests that have recently come back to the forefront are indulging in a frenzied backstage, in order to prevent the completion of the terminal, in order to serve their own economic interests, in the absence of the public interest.
The Cypriot Government is monitoring the developments minute by minute, as it considers that the delivery of the terminal and the arrival of natural gas for electricity production are of exceptional economic and energy importance for the public interest, electricity consumers and the local economy and every day of delay costs dearly and directly threatens the adequacy of electricity at peak hours in the coming years.
