The Cypriot government said on Tuesday 4th of March that an additional €200 million is needed to complete the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Vasiliko.
The money is to be provided either in the form of state aid to Defa or through loan financing.
The amount requested is expected to cover several key areas.In particular, the funds will be used to:
- Complete onshore infrastructure;
- Complete the FSRU floating installation berth;
- Deliver to Cyprus of the Prometheus vessel, which is still in Malaysia.
Interestingly, despite all the obstacles, the Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Cyprus, Yiorgos Papanastasiou, continues to insist that the project will be completed by the end of the year. At the same time, the timing of the ship's arrival on the island remains unclear, as two expensive systems need to be installed on the vessel, and the installation process itself could take several months.
It should be noted that the authorities have previously confirmed that the Prometheus is in Malaysia. They are now discussing the possibility of transferring it temporarily to Egypt to avoid downtime.
At the same time, the construction of the pipelines has come to a standstill: the contract for their design has been cancelled by a court decision, and the consultant working on the project has not received the necessary 15 million euros. In addition, experts warn that the berth at Vasiliko, which was designed to receive the ship, is prone to corrosion due to a lack of proper maintenance, which could lead to additional costs and delays.
It should be remembered that the initial budget for the project was €500 million, but has already risen by €42 million due to cost overruns and price increases.
Deadlines are constantly being pushed back: the Chinese contractors have postponed deadlines four times and stopped work altogether in July 2024. The European Public Prosecutor is now investigating possible irregularities in the tendering process and spending.Cypriot consumers are overpaying about €10 million a month for greenhouse gas emissions because of the lack of LNG.
MP Kyriakos Hadjiyiannis expressed serious doubts that the project would be completed by 2025. He predicted that it could take another three to four years to complete the work and that the actual cost would be much higher than the €200 million requested.