Filenews 21 May 2025 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
The negotiations with the approximately ten companies - the majority of them large and internationally successful - for the selection of Project Manager - Project Coordinator - for the completion of the liquefied natural gas regasification terminal in Vassiliko lasted much longer than planned by the Government and DEFA – ETYFA.
The selection of a contractor was scheduled for last February. The competition was issued in August 2024. But the decision and the signing of an agreement did not come until May 2025. The delay is long and painful and de facto postpones once again the completion of the projects, the delivery of the terminal and the import of natural gas for electricity production.
The people of ETYFA and the Ministry of Energy attribute the delay to the complicated and time-consuming evaluation and negotiation procedures, but this does not change the current situation: The new effort to complete a necessary infrastructure project begins at a time when it should already have been in full operation and production. And no one can at this moment precisely determine the schedules of the remaining works - and the final cost - to complete the projects at sea and on land, for the construction of the pipeline network to the power plants, for the conclusion of liquefied natural gas purchase agreements, etc.
On the other hand, the process followed by ETYFA led to the selection of a really large, successful and renowned company in the field of construction and management of large energy projects, as well as the provision of consulting services for such projects.
Technip Energies (T.EN PMS Services Ltd (Technip Energies), which undertook the coordination of the works and the completion of the terminal, is a giant in its field and its choice justifies optimism and hope that the project will finally be disengaged from the swamp in which it was immobilized by previous manipulations by DEFA and ETYFA, as well as by the Chinese CPP.
Technip Energies' website states that the company has 17,000 employees, operating in 34 countries. It maintains 450 projects under execution and counts seven decades of operation.
Yesterday's announcement by ETYFA does not provide information on the next steps. Information from the Liberal Party states that in the next 3-4 days a meeting of executives of ETYFA and Technip Energies will be held, in order to plan the projects and set the schedules, so that the company can get to work within a week. It should be taken for granted that in the initial stages it is necessary to have a full assessment of the situation in Vassiliko by the contractor and the preparation of the documents for the announcement of new tenders, mainly for the works on land.
What will happen to the pier?
A major chapter remains open: the completion of the pier to which the FSRU Prometheus will dock, which for the time being awaits the equipment under construction in Malaysia to be certified as an FSRU, as for the time being it is considered an LNG Carrier.
ETYFA has obtained an opinion from its legal advisor in London that, based on the initial contract with CPP, it can exploit, without any other tender process, the VPSM consortium, which had been exploited by CPP as a subcontractor for the construction of the pier. ETYFA's negotiations with the consortium have gone through a thousand waves in recent months, but it is considered to be in the final stage of concluding an agreement.
On-site inspections of the condition of the equipment that has been submerged in the sea for months are already being planned, in order to clarify whether the new additions to the pier can start immediately or if any maintenance will be needed. However, there is no final agreement with VPSM (Multimarine Servises and Spanopoulos Group) for the time being.
