{"id":4171,"date":"2024-03-14T18:01:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T16:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=4171"},"modified":"2024-03-14T18:01:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T16:01:15","slug":"government-has-no-plan-b-over-vasiliko-lng-terminal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=4171","title":{"rendered":"Government , \u2018has no plan B\u2019 over Vasiliko LNG terminal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/government-has-no-plan-b-over-vasiliko-lng-terminal.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><strong>The government \u201chas no \u2018plan B\u2019\u201d regarding the stalled Vasiliko liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal<\/strong>, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Papanastasiou was speaking at a behind-closed-doors meeting of the House Audit Committee, with arbitration proceedings going on between the Republic of Cyprus and the Chinese-led consortium which is due to build the LNG plant.He explained that <strong>he \u201cwould not give the same project today as the Republic of Cyprus to this consortium<\/strong>,\u201d but that completing the project with the current contractor is \u201cthe fastest solution\u201d.\u201cThe Republic of Cyprus\u2019 first port of call will be to complete the project with this contractor, unless it shows serious weaknesses or its demands are terribly excessive,\u201d he said.He said his ministry\u2019s priority is \u201cthe future of the terminal, which must be operational as soon as possible.\u201dHe added that the contractor \u201cwill not receive a single euro while the process is ongoing\u201d, and that the government \u201crequires the project to be delivered in July 2024 as promised by the contractor.\u201d<strong>This deadline has been set after two previous extensions were given<\/strong>. The terminal was initially supposed to be ready in September 2022, before its deadline was extended to July 2023 and then to October of the same year.However, Papanastasiou remained optimistic, saying \u201cwe are concentrating on making this terminal work.\u201dHe also highlighted the need to import natural gas to be used in conventional power generation at present, saying that if the LNG terminal existed today, the price of electricity would be reduced to around 20 cents per kilowatt hour.He said <strong>he is discussing the matter with the Chinese Ambassador Liu Yantao<\/strong> \u201con a political level\u201d, given that the contracting company is state-owned.The ongoing discussions with Liu, he said, are \u201cvery constructive\u201d, with a meeting scheduled for Friday with a high-ranking executive from the company who has travelled to Cyprus for consultation on the matter.Asked if he believes it is possible to complete the terminal by July, he said <strong>\u201cwe are very close to completion<\/strong>, so long as the contractor wishes it so.\u201cIf the contractor for whatever reason is unwilling or unable to complete the work, they should say so, so Cyprus is not held captive by the contractor\u2019s weaknesses.\u201dAt the meeting, it was noted that former Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis, who served under former President Nicos Anastasiades, and former head of the Natural Gas Public Company (Defa) Symeon Kassianides were both not present at the meeting, despite plans having been afoot since February to summon them to a meeting.Committee chairman and Diko MP Zacharias Koulias said he has \u201cabsolute confidence\u201d that the project will \u201chave a happy ending\u201d.\u201c<strong>Parliament also expects that China will be asked to honour its signature<\/strong>,\u201d he said, saying that \u201cCyprus is a small state which has friendly relations with China, and Cyprus is a member of the European Union. In honouring its signature here, China will be able to continue to carry out projects in the EU.\u201dAsked if the matter would be referred to the Anti-Corruption Authority, he said that such a decision will be taken at a full session of the committee after all its meetings on the matter have been completed.\u201cCertainly, there are considerations where it will go beyond this, but <strong>there are so many serious violations that it has to go somewhere<\/strong>,\u201d he said.Akel MP Irene Charalambidou said she will \u201cinsist\u201d that the matter be referred to the Anti-Corruption Authority, adding that what has been heard at the committee was \u201c<strong>outrageous, and at the Cypriot taxpayer\u2019s expense<\/strong>.\u201dShe pointed out that former minister Lakkotrypis had, according to Auditor-General Odysseas Michaelides, \u201cfailed to mention his relationship\u201d with the parent company of one of the companies involved in the terminal and was subsequently employed by the same company.\u201cIf we are a serious state, given the millions that have already been lost, and the work which has not been done \u2026 <strong>the least the state can do is initiate criminal investigations<\/strong>,\u201d she said.Follow the<br \/>\nCyprus Mail  on Google News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Vasiliko liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project in Cyprus is currently stalled, with no alternative plan (&#8220;plan B&#8221;) in place, as stated by Energy Minister George Papanastasiou. The project is facing delays due to arbitration proceedings between the Republic of Cyprus and the Chinese-led consortium responsible for building the LNG plant. Despite reservations about the consortium, the government aims to complete the project with the current contractor as the fastest solution, requiring the project to be delivered by July 2024. This deadline comes after two previous extensions, with the initial completion date set for September 2022. Papanastasiou remains optimistic about the project&#8217;s completion and is in discussions with the Chinese Ambassador Liu Yantao. Concerns about potential violations and the need for possible criminal investigations have been raised, with some suggesting the matter be referred to the Anti-Corruption Authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[671,239,486,1750,33,1498,295,3,1381,1212,553,358,11,379,599,250,415,1342,757,870,387,1346,758,1569,882,243,1799,1220,1004,1931,483],"class_list":["post-4171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-akel","tag-anti-corruption","tag-china","tag-chinese-led-consortium","tag-companies","tag-confidence","tag-corruption","tag-cyprus","tag-deadline","tag-diko","tag-electricity","tag-energy","tag-energy-minister-george-papanastasiou","tag-eu","tag-euro","tag-google","tag-government","tag-investigations","tag-lng-plant","tag-lng-terminal","tag-lost","tag-meeting","tag-natural-gas","tag-natural-gas-public-company","tag-nicos-anastasiades","tag-odysseas-michaelides","tag-parliament","tag-port","tag-power","tag-vasiliko-liquefied-natural-gas-terminal","tag-violations"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Government , \u2018has no plan B\u2019 over Vasiliko LNG terminal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government , \u2018has no plan B\u2019 over Vasiliko LNG terminal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Vasiliko liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project in Cyprus is currently stalled, with no alternative plan (&quot;plan B&quot;) in place, as stated by Energy Minister George Papanastasiou. The project is facing delays due to arbitration proceedings between the Republic of Cyprus and the Chinese-led consortium responsible for building the LNG plant. Despite reservations about the consortium, the government aims to complete the project with the current contractor as the fastest solution, requiring the project to be delivered by July 2024. This deadline comes after two previous extensions, with the initial completion date set for September 2022. Papanastasiou remains optimistic about the project&#039;s completion and is in discussions with the Chinese Ambassador Liu Yantao. Concerns about potential violations and the need for possible criminal investigations have been raised, with some suggesting the matter be referred to the Anti-Corruption Authority.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=4171\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ch.jfdi.cc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-14T16:01:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/government-has-no-plan-b-over-vasiliko-lng-terminal.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cyprus Mail\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cyprus Mail\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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