TRADE unions at the EAC remained defiant yesterday against government plans for a Liquefied Natural Gas offshore facility, even after it seemed their board of directors had left them out to dry.
On Thursday, the EAC board endorsed the government blueprint, in what came as a shock twist to many.
Until then, the state-run electricity utility had been very vocal in slamming the plan.
Moreover, in the weeks leading up to last Thursday, the EAC board and employees had been engaged in a public row with the Trade Minister Antonis Michaelides – the man spearheading the offshore concept.
More than once, Michaelides had told the board to quit if they disagreed with government policy.
Under the plan, the government aims to invite tenders for the construction of a floating unit within five years, while affirming its long-term commitment to an onshore facility.
The EAC is against a floating unit as it believes the technology involved is untested and therefore unreliable. They have labelled the concept an experiment that will end up wasting taxpayers’ money.
They are championing a land-based liquefaction facility, but the government argues that won’t be ready before 2013 or even 2014. In the meantime, Cypriot consumers will continue paying for the far more expensive diesel fuel, the government says.
EAC chairman Charilaos Stavrakis yesterday played down the notion that the board had had a change of heart.
He told the Mail that, having studied the government plan, the board was “relatively pleased with it”.
“I’d say we are 60 to 70 per cent satisfied,” he added.
According to Stavrakis, the plan states the offshore terminal project would be completed in five years or else abandoned, which was an “improvement” on prior statements by the Trade Minister who had spoken of 20-year contracts.
Also, said Stavrakis, there is a “reference” to making the LNG industry an emergent, or protected, market for a certain number of years – one of the EAC’s main demands.
Asked whether the board had made its decision in record time – having received the government plan just 24 hours earlier – he said the board more or less had been aware of its general parameters.
“It was not a highly technical document that required experts to analyze it. It was more of a statement of policy, written in plain Greek.
“We feel that, since our main demands have been generally met, we should not be dogmatic. It’s time we got on with it,” he noted.
But EAC unions remain as militant as ever.
Yesterday, union delegates refused flat-out to meet with Stavrakis, who was to explain to them the reasons for the board’s decision.
Sotos Savva, a senior trade unionist, said there was “no point” to the meeting.
He said the board’s decision was “miles away from their prior position… which they had publicised with paid ads in all the papers.”
According to Savva, the EAC had assigned a team of in-house experts on the understanding that they would handle the whole LNG project.
And they had expected the board to read the government plan and then hand it over to the scientists, who would then study it and come back with recommendations – something that did not happen.
“As such, we think the board’s decision was extremely hasty,” added Savva.
The unions had threatened a potential crippling strike to the power grid on June 27 unless the government backed down from the offshore terminal. It’s not clear where the board’s move leaves them.
For his part, a confident Trade Minister Michaelides said he was pleased with the board’s decision.
And he urged the EAC to get on board the offshore project by becoming partners in a proposed public corporation, in which the state would have the majority stake.
