Filenews 9 December 2025 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
The joint decision of the governments of Cyprus and Greece to freeze decisions and actions on the project of the electrical interconnection of the two countries, in order to update the technical-economic data, obliges Nexans, which undertook the construction and laying of the cable, to review its own planning and cancel offers it had published for the purchase of services from companies in the sector.
Information from Fileleftheros states that the French company has already informed foreign companies in writing, which were interested in the tenders it announced for the execution of projects falling under the overall contract - exploration and laying - that it undertook against IPTO, that the tenders are cancelled, as the project of the Cyprus-Crete electrical interconnection cannot proceed as originally planned.
The same information tells us that Nexans has not informed potential bidders about the permanent cancellation of the Great Sea Interconnector. It informed them, however, that a re-evaluation of the project should be carried out in the next period and a new planning should be prepared to promote the individual works. If and when that happens, Nexans will obviously go out again in search of partners.
Publicly so far there has been no reaction or even comment from the French company on the decision of Cyprus and Greece to update the technical and financial studies for the Great Sea Interconnector.
Which plan b, he said...
A few weeks (end of October '25) before the statements made in Athens by Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Nikos Christodoulidis about the need to update studies, the new CEO of Nexans, Julian Ebber, had publicly assured that the project is progressing normally and that the company continues its close cooperation with IPTO for the next steps.
In that "interrogation" by analysts and journalists, the CEO of the company downplayed a previous announcement by Nexans, which referred to alternatives for the utilization of the submarine cables it is building for the Crete-Cyprus interconnection, in the event that the project eventually fails.
"There is no plan B, we are working on the basis of plan A for the project," he had stressed. He explained that Nexans is considering electrical interconnections with similar technical characteristics to those of GSI, but these initiatives concern plans, he said, for 2028-2029 and not the Cyprus-Crete interconnection. It is very likely that today the leader of Nexans will deal with the much-praised issue very differently.
Mr. Ebert had confirmed on that occasion that the company received payments from IPTO of €250 million, which covers the work carried out until August. It is not known if IPTO made other disbursements to Nexans after August '25, which is rather unlikely.
It is also not known what financial consequences the substantial freezing of the project, the mandatory change of programming - and cable production - by Nexans and the pending Cypriot debts to the Greek organization will have for IPTO (as the implementing body) or for the two governments or for the electricity consumers in the two countries.
