The Etifa Prometheas floating regasification unit will be shipped from Shanghai to Cyprus at the beginning of December.
This was announced by Energy Minister Yiorgos Papanastasiou on Wednesday 14 November.
According to him, the delivery will take between 20 and 45 days. The Minister said that such a significant time difference is due to the fact that the exact number of days required to obtain the official certification for the vessel to be used as an FSRU is not yet known. However, the unit is expected to arrive in Cyprus by the end of the year at the latest.
Papanastasiou also revealed that the final amount to be paid to the CPP-Metron consortium (CMC) as a guarantee has been significantly reduced. Incidentally, the Cypriot government has refused to release the additional funds requested by the Chinese consortium. As a result, the Vasiliko liquefied natural gas terminal project may soon be restarted. A new contractor is currently being actively sought.
As a reminder, the contract for the construction of the Vasiliko liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal between the Cyprus government and the international consortium was signed in December 2019.
The groundbreaking ceremony will take place on 9 July 2020 with the participation of the former President of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades.
The project includes a floating storage and regasification unit, a berth for the floating unit, isothermal storage tanks, an evaporation plant and an onshore pipeline. The idea was to import natural gas in liquefied form to Cyprus, where it would be regasified and used to power power stations.
The terminal was originally due to be completed by the end of 2021, but this was pushed back to the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. In the end, no one could give an exact completion date for the facility. And in July 2024, the contractor announced the suspension of the project. According to media reports, tensions between the state-owned Natural Gas Infrastructure Company (ETIFA) and the Chinese consortium CPP-Metron (CMC) arose over the lack of clear deadlines for the construction of the LNG terminal, as well as problems with the shipment of a floating regasification unit from Shanghai to Cyprus.
Negotiations continued until 18 July, when the contractor announced its withdrawal from the project. The company condemned the non-payment of contractual remuneration and criticised the inexperience of the Cypriot party and the consultants hired by it.