Filenews 7 August 2025 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
The state-owned Natural Gas Infrastructure Company (ETYFA) is entering another tender process, as part of its efforts to bring out of the swamp of inertia and delays the project of the construction of a liquefied natural gas dehydrogenation terminal and its transportation to power plants in Vassilikos.
The construction of the pier and some onshore infrastructure was halted in July 2024, after the contract was terminated by the Chinese CPP.
Efforts to implement a plan b, so that the work on the pier - which is considered to require the most time - to resume as soon as possible was wrecked, following the decision of ETYFA, at the end of July 2025, to suspend negotiations with the VPSM consortium, for reasons that were not fully clarified.
Officially, it was reported that the negotiations were interrupted because the consortium of contractors did not respond to ETYFA's request to assume legal and operational responsibility for the equipment purchased by CPP and handed over to ETYFA, as well as for the planning done earlier. The contractor countered that he is ready to take any responsibility, but for the equipment he will buy himself and the works that his crews will execute.
However, it was publicly reported by ETYFA executives that the interruption of negotiations with VPSM was mainly because this was suggested by the new project manager of the project, the French Technip.
On behalf of ETYFA, Technip has reportedly requested – recommended not to seek two contractors, one for the pier and one for the onshore infrastructure (reception of regasified natural gas, storage and channelling to the EAC and PEC units).
The French company reportedly asked for a single tender in search of a contractor who would take over both the pier and the onshore pipelines.
Last Monday, during a meeting of the Board of Directors of ETYFA, the decision to issue a tender, under the guidance of Technip, was finalized. At the same time, it was finalized, de facto, that the completion of the long-suffering project is postponed indefinitely. There is no calculation by the official side for the time it will take for the issuance of a tender - through an invitation for expression of interest - the submission of final proposals, their evaluation, the assignment of the project, its construction and delivery and the start of regasification. It is considered by many sources impossible to operate the terminal within the current three years.
How the process progresses
The information of the Liberal states that after the last session of the board of directors of ETYFA, the service of the state-owned company will run the preparation of the documents for the publication of a call for expression of interest, with the recipients being contractors that can meet the needs of the project, as a whole.
Given that the holidays of the fifteenth of August and the holidays are in between, it seems difficult to prepare the documents and publish them.
After the publication of the documents and the expression of interest from contractors, ETYFA, in collaboration with Technip, will evaluate the proposals and select a small number of contractors, with whom it will develop a competitive dialogue. Subsequently, (new) documents will be prepared for the final bids and the process will enter the stage of submission of best and final offers, for the final selection.
Similar was the procedure followed for the selection of the project manager, which took several months.
Will there be a new FEED?
Unofficial information that could not be cross-checked indicates that Technip has requested that a new FEED (Front-End Engineering Design) be prepared for the project, with the participation of perhaps the contractors who will be interested, so that the project can get out of the notorious business area in which it has entered after the adventures with the Chinese of CPP and their Greek partners.
If a new, preliminary, detailed study of the project is indeed promoted, before the final decisions on the tenders and the selection of a contractor for the EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) construction contract, then inevitably the delay will be longer than expected.
The information of the Liberal Party states that there is already a lot of interest from contractors and subcontractors, however, the interest comes from Greece and not from large foreign companies, with experience in such -distressed- projects, as would be preferred by ETYFA and DEFA, but mainly by Technip.
