With no reliable information yet available to the Ministry of Energy and other governmental structures on the time when the Vasilikos LNG terminal can be completed and the possible start of the use of the new fuel in power generation, the relevant bodies are looking for ways to revise the planning for the construction of the natural gas transmission system to the power plants.
As Phileleftheros has informed several times in the recent past, DEFA (Natural Gas Public Company) under the previous administrations seriously delayed the procedures for the selection of a contractor for the preparation of a ten-year plan for the gas supply-transmission system so today there is no contractor to carry out the study and no prospects that this pending issue will be resolved soon.
The delayed tender launched by DEFA was successfully challenged before the Tender Review Authority, which issued annulment decisions. The tender is currently pending before the Administrative Court, where one of the bidders has appealed against an earlier decision of the Review Authority. There is no reliable prediction on the horizon as to the timing of the Court’s decision, the content of the decision, and the developments it will trigger.
We recall that the contractor selected by DEFA will not build the pipelines to transport the gas from the LNG terminal. It will prepare a study for the transmission system in general and in particular for the pipelines connecting the terminal to power plants, at this stage of EAC and the private PEC. It will then also prepare the terms of the tenders for the construction works.
With the obvious long delay foreseen for the implementation of these plans, we are informed that the Ministry of Energy and DEFA are now seriously discussing the possibility of pursuing an alternative option to save time in terms of the construction of the pipelines to the EAC station and the PEC station.construction of pipelines. Ministry of Energy, LNG terminal, gas transmission system
