Closed door House meeting on Vasiliko debacle

The House energy committee is holding a closed-door session on Tuesday, to discuss the progress of the liquified natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Vasilikos and the Cyprus-Greece-Israel electrical interconnection via the Great Sea Interconnector undersea cable.

Energy Minister George Papanastasiou requested the meeting be conducted behind closed doors, citing sensitive issues currently under arbitration at the arbitration court in London with the Chinese company CPP Metron.

CPP Metron, the contractor responsible for constructing the onshore LNG terminal at Vasilikos, has filed a claim for additional compensation from the Republic of Cyprus amounting to €200 million.

The energy committee accepted the minister’s request for a closed session. Committee chairman Kyriakos Hadjiyiannis stressed the importance of confidentiality, warning that even a minimal leak could have significant legal implications against the public interest.

“Any information that is disclosed could be used in the ongoing arbitration cases,” he said.

Great Sea Interconnector is a €1.9-billion undersea cable project aiming to link the electricity grids of Cyprus, Greece and Israel.

Hadjiyiannis asked for the removal of journalists, even the assistants of the MPs, and anyone else not related to the issue to ensure the confidentiality of the session.

Participating in the energy committee session, among others, are the permanent secretary of the finance ministry, the president of the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority, the board president of the Electricity Authority of Cyprus, the president and the general director of the Natural Gas Public Company and the Natural Gas Infrastructure Company, and representatives from the Cyprus Transmission System Operator and the Distribution System Operator.

Cyprus signed the contract for the LNG project back in December 2019. The whole project should have taken 22 months to complete, however, the contractor has halted all work at the land-based LNG facilities at Vasiliko, citing the non-payment of invoices by Cyprus. The consortium, is also seeking €200 million in additional compensation through arbitration proceedings in London. This claim comes despite the original contract being awarded for €500 million, with current expenses already exceeding €542 million.

Switching to natural gas for power generation is crucial for Cyprus, as it would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent, potentially saving the island tens of millions of euros in greenhouse gas penalties.

Meanwhile, the Great Sea Interconnector is a €1.9 billion project aiming to link the electricity grids of Cyprus, Greece, and Israel through the world’s longest submarine power cable. Promoters of the project suggested Cypriot consumers could save as much as €400 a year.