LNG process in final stages

THE PROCEDURE to select a long-term natural gas supplier is now in its ‘final stages’, the Natural Gas Public Company (DEFA) said yesterday.
In a statement, DEFA said it was continuing its ‘intensive negotiations’ with the interested suppliers.
Given that negotiations have entered a sensitive stage, no announcements or comments would be made to the media ‘until there is something new to announce’, DEFA said, citing a confidentiality agreement with the suppliers.
The body also appealed to the media to ‘respect this decision, because the publication of any information would be detrimental to both the procedure and Cyprus’.
DEFA is currently conducting the last round of discussions with three short-listed companies. DEFA chairman Costas Ioannou said the body had not yet set a deadline for the submission of the final proposals.
Next, DEFA will sign a preliminary agreement with the selected bidder, to be followed by a final round of one-on-one negotiations for a final deal.
The supply agreement will be for 20 years. The government has opted for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which will be processed at a re-gasification facility, estimated to cost some €800 million.
Construction on the facility has yet to begin, but officials have repeatedly stated it should be ready by 2014.
The decision to sign a 20-year deal has drawn criticism from various quarters, concerned that a land terminal would be huge and it would commit Cyprus to LNG while other, cheaper alternatives could be available.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.