THE authorities in Cyprus have pushed back for a second time the deadline to submit bids to provide a floating storage and regasification unit for deployment in Vasilikos Bay, writes Iain Esau.

The original timeline from Defa, the state utility responsible for the procurement and distribution of gas in the island nation, called for bids to be submitted on 18 January, a deadline that was later extended to 29 March.

In February — based on the 29 March submission date — Defa chairman Symeon Kassianides told Upstream that the FSRU contract could be awarded as soon as this July, with the facilities to be operational by July 2021 at the latest.

It is unclear if this timeline remains the same.

“The period of construction and delivery is 24 months from the date of the signature. It involves the acquisition of an FSRU, and construction of a 1.3 kilometre jetty,” he said. The winner will also be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the onshore facilities for 20 years.

After completing a feasibility study in 2016, the government of Cyprus decided to proceed with an FSRU project, which is due to be operational by the end of October 2020.

Up for grabs is a design, construction and operation contract based on an FSRU that has a minimum storage capacity of 125,000 cubic metres and which can offload from LNG carriers ranging in size from 120,000 cubic metres to 217,000 cubic metres.

Also included in the workscope is the construction of offshore infrastructure for the permanent berthing of the FSRU, plus onshore infrastructure and associated equipment to deliver gas to the Vasilikos power station and potentially other consumers.

The government plans to convert the power station to run on gas instead of coal.

Weekly

Cyprus pushes back FSRU bid deadline for a second time