Defa has learnt from mistakes over Vasiliko, chief says of new tender

Natural gas public company (Defa) chairman George Pistentis on Wednesday promised that issues which arose in the past related to efforts to build a natural gas liquefaction terminal in Vasiliko have been “taken into account” in the publication of the new tender for the project’s completion. “They took into account past experience and the issues which arose so that they would not arise again,” he told the Cyprus News Agency, before saying that with the deadline for expressions of interest having now passed, “the relevant criteria for the second phase are being prepared”. He said that the evaluation of interested parties will be “based on technical and financial criteria, including the competence, experience, and financial solvency of the companies”. “The goal is to complete the preselection phase before the end of this year.” This, he said, will be done with the aim of awarding the contract before next summer. A total of eight parties expressed interest in the project ahead of last week’s deadline – Greek companies Avax SA and Terna SA, Egyptian state-owned firm Petrojet, Chinese state-owned firm the China Harbour Engineering Company, Norwegian firm Econnect Energy, Italian company Saipem SpA, Israeli company Baran International, and Cypriot firm Archirodon. Fellow Cypriot company Cyfield is reportedly in talks with the China Harbour Engineering Company to join the Chinese firm’s bid. Pistentis on Wednesday said that the evaluation of the bids started “immediately after he completion of the process” of expressions of interest, and added that “from the names, it seems that there are companies which can undertake the project”. “We are satisfied with the interest shown,” he said. Govt expects project to cost €180m and take two years to complete Previously, Energy Minister Michael Damianos had said that the cost of completing the project has been estimated at around €180 million, and that he expects the project to take two years to be brought to completion. Efforts to build a liquefaction terminal in Vasiliko have been stalled for more than two years, with the China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co consortium and Metron Energy Applications SA, which together formed the CPP-Metron Consortium (CMC), having torn up its contract with the government for its construction in July 2024. CMC had accused public natural gas infrastructure company Etyfa of “bullying” and of leaving them to work “without proper or timely payments for years”, while a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), which was supposed to be brought to Cyprus for use, remained moored in Malaysia, without certification. The FSRU remains in Malaysia to this day. European Commission demanded Cyprus repay €69m Also in July 2024, the European Commission demanded that the Republic of Cyprus repay almost €69 million which had been paid in grants for the terminal. This money had been provided as part of the European Union’s “Cyprus Gas 2 EU” project, which was listed as an EU “project of common interest” and had been funded by the EU to the tune of €101m. The energy ministry received a letter from the European Commission which listed “possible irregularities which occurred during the evaluation period of the tender” for the construction project. The commission’s letter, according to the ministry, “alleges two substantive violations”, the first being the criteria for awarding the tender [to CMC] in December 2019 and the second being the signing of the bilateral agreement upon approval of an additional €25m in funding in June 2022. The European public prosecutor’s office had earlier in the same month publicly announced the opening of an investigation into possible procurement fraud, misappropriation of EU funds and corruption related to the Vasiliko LNG terminal. The Republic of Cyprus signed the contract for the LNG project in December 2019. The entire project should have taken 22 months to complete.