The floating storage regasification unit (FSRU), which will be permanently stationed in Vasilikos harbour, is expected to facilitate LNG bunkering.
The FSRU is a key component of the CyprusGas2EU project, which falls under the European Union’s (EU) CYnergy project that aims to promote the uptake of natural gas in Cyprus and the development of a sustainable and fully functional natural gas market.
In a keynote address during a workshop in Nicosia earlier this week, Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis, who revealed that a separate tender for the import of LNG would be launched by the end of the year, said that Cyprus2GasEU had received €101 million in funding from the EU for the €250 million project.
‘Essentially, we shall be able, where necessary, to trade LNG between the infrastructures at Vasilikos and the [LNG terminal] at Revythousa in Greece,’ Lakkotrypis was quoted as saying by Cyprus Mail.
According to the report, the country’s Transport Minister, Vasiliki Antoniadou, also told attendees of the workshop that her ministry was looking into the possibility of creating infrastructure at the site so that vessels could be bunkered with LNG directly from the jetty at Vasilikos.
The ministry’s aim is to reportedly establish Cyprus as a leader in LNG bunkering services.
In the February/March 2018 edition of Bunkerspot, Lesley Bankes-Hughes discusses the progress on EU-supported initiatives – including Cyprus2GasEU - focussed on delivering a ‘cleaner’ marine fuel network in the East Mediterranean with Anna Apostolopoulou and Panayiotis Mitrou of Lloyd’s Register. To read the article, click here.
