First FSRU for Cyprus Begins Commissioning at Cosco Shipyard - THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

MAR 6, 2023 7:03

The commissioning phase of the first FSRU being converted in Shanghai for Cyprus has begun. The vessel completed its second dry docking on March 4 at the Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry yard and is now preparing for trials before departing for the Mediterranean this year. The project, which has been delayed by several complications, calls for the FSRU to operate in Cyprus till 2044.

The project which is expected to cost approximately €315 million when it is completed is being called the biggest ever project in the history of Cyprus and will create the island’s first LNG facility. The 72,780 dwt LNG carrier built in 2002 as the Gria will be permanently docked less than a mile off the coast of Limassol, Cyprus in Vasilikos Bay. The project plans to directly connect the vessel to the Vasilikos power station.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which provided $95 million of funding to acquire the vessel for conversion, calls this project critical to Cyprus’ energy security and will help to meet the island’s environmental goals. The FSRU will replace heavy fuel oil used at the power plant. It is estimated that 90 percent of the island’s power supply comes from heavy fuel.

EBRD supports decarbonisation of energy sector in Cyprus - EBRD

31 Jul 2020

Olga Aristeidou

• EBRD loan of €80 million, alongside EU and EIB financing, for floating storage and regasification unit in Cyprus
• Natural gas introduced to Cyprus, reducing dependence on oil
• Substantial reduction expected in local emissions of CO2 and air pollutants

The population of Cyprus will benefit from cleaner air and reduced energy costs thanks to the introduction of natural gas to the country, with a project jointly financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Union (EU).

The EBRD is providing a €80 million loan to the Natural Gas Infrastructure Company of Cyprus (ETYFA) for the acquisition of a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and the development of related infrastructure. The FSRU will be permanently anchored about 1.3 km off the coast of Limassol in Vasilikos Bay and will connect directly to the adjacent Vasilikos power station, the largest power plant in Cyprus.

Cyprus’ Natural Gas Infrastructure Company secures €80 million financing by EBRD - IN-CYPRUS / CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

26.JUNE.2020

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) gave the green light for 80 million euros funding to the Natural Gas Infrastructure Company of Cyprus (ETYFA). The Loan Facility will be covering the construction of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Import Terminal in Cyprus. The financing is of a 20-year duration.

According to an ETYFA’s press release, funding is additional to ETYFA’s already approved financing by the European Investment Bank (EIB). EIB has approved a 150-million-euro funding to ETYFA on June 11th. The total capital expenditure budget of the project is 289 million euros, while ETYFA has already secured a 101 million euros subsidy by the European Commission, through “Connecting Europe Facility” (CEF) and 43 million euros, from the participation of the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) in the shareholding structure of ETYFA.

“Both the decision made by EIB, and the decision by EBRD highlight once again the trust of the European institutions towards ETYFA and energy authorities in Cyprus”, the press release points out.

The project is considered of major importance for the energy future of Cyprus.

Chinese-led consortium to build Cyprus’ gas import terminal - ASSOCIATED PRESS

13 December 2019

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus signed a deal on Friday with a Chinese-led consortium to build the east Mediterranean island nation’s first natural gas import terminal that officials said will help the country generate cleaner and cheaper energy.

Energy Minister Georgios Lakkotrypis said the 289 million-euro ($323 million) floating terminal will help reduce Cyprus’ carbon footprint from electricity generation by up to 30%.

The terminal is designed to convert imported liquefied gas back into gaseous form for use in Cyprus’ main power plant.

A consortium of China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering, Metron, Hudong-Zhongua Shipbuilding and Wilhelmsen Ship Management is expected to finish construction by early 2022.

The terminal that’s expected to be completed by early 2022 is to be built by a consortium of China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering, Metron, Hudong-Zhongua Shipbuilding and Wilhelmsen Ship Management.

Egypt signs $430-million gas deal with Texas' Noble Energy - YAHOO FINANCE / REUTERS

November 23, 2019

CAIRO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Egypt said on Saturday it had signed several multimillion-dollar energy investment accords including a $430-million deal for Texas-based Noble Energy to pump natural gas through the East Mediterranean Gas Company's pipeline.

Under another agreement with Noble, which will also be financed by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the energy company will manufacture petroleum products in partnership with Egyptian company Dolphinus Holdings.

The cabinet detailed the plans at the end of an Africa investment forum held on the site of the country's planned new administrative capital in the desert east of Cairo.

Amsterdam-based Lekela also announced the start of construction work on its West Bakr wind power plant, which will have a capacity of 250 megawatts and require a total investment of $350 million.

EBRD finances upgrade of Egypt’s Suez oil refinery - ENERGY EGYPT / OIL & GAS JOURNAL

May 25, 2018

The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is providing a $200-million loan to state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. subsidiary Suez Oil Processing Co. (SOPC) for the upgrade of its 68,000-b/d refinery adjacent to Suez, Egypt, at the entrance of the Suez Canal.

ERBD funds will finance investments to modernize the refinery with technical updates to improve overall operational performance and energy efficiency at the site, as well as works to reduce the refinery’s carbon footprint, ERBD said.

Specifically, the proposed projects will increase flexibility of the plant’s crude intake and enable production of higher-quality, lower-sulfur fuels, ERBD said.

The refinery also will implement an extensive energy efficiency program that will reduce emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent by more than 295,000 tonnes/year and result in a savings of 300,000 Mw-hr of energy and 384,000 cu m of water annually, the international financial institution said.

Transgaz loses bid for Greece’s grid operator - BUSINESS REVIEW

April 20, 2018 12:08
Sorin Melenciuc 

The consortium led by Spanish company Reganosa, including Romanian state-owned monopoly Transgaz and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), lost the bid for Greece’s grid operator DESFA, Athens accepting a EUR 535 million offer from the rival consortium led by Italy’s Snam, according to Reuters.

DESFA runs a gas transport network by pipelines of 1,459 km in Greece. The winning bidder was a consortium of Italy’s Snam, Spain’s Enagas Internacional and Belgium’s Fluxys.

The sale of a majority stake in DESFA is mandated under Greece’s latest international financial bailout. The Greek government is selling a 31 percent stake in DESFA and Hellenic Petroleum, Greece’s biggest oil refiner, 35 percent.

For Greece is the second attempt to sale the company, after a previous EUR 400 million deal with Azerbaijan’s SOCAR fell through.

For Transgaz, the bid was the first major attempt to step outside Romania, in an area dominated for decades by Russian giant Gazprom, the main gas supplyer of the countries from the region.

Greece accepts Snam-led consortium's offer for gas grid DESFA - REUTERS

APRIL 19, 2018 / 7:30 PM / 2 DAYS AGO

Angeliki Koutantou

• Athens relaunched the sale last year
• Named Snam-led consortium “preferred investor”
• Greece a crossroads for new gas routes, consortium says

ATHENS, April 19 (Reuters) - Greece has accepted a 535 million euro ($662 million) offer from a consortium led by Italy’s Snam for a majority stake in gas grid operator DESFA, naming it the “preferred investor”, its privatisation agency said on Thursday.

DESFA runs a network for transporting gas from the Greek-Bulgarian and Greek-Turkish borders via a 1,459-km (907-mile) pipeline. It also has a liquefied gas terminal facility on an islet off Athens.

Strategically-placed, Greece could represent an important crossroads for the diversification of supplies and new natural gas routes in Europe, the consortium said.

It anticipated the transaction would be finalised in the second half of 2018 after securing approvals, including antitrust clearance.

At least one DESFA sale offer believed to exceed €500m - ENERGY PRESS

16/04/2018

At least one of two second-round offers submitted last week by two consortiums participating in an international tender offering 66 percent of DESFA, the natural gas grid operator, exceeds 500 million euros, according to energypress sources.

Such a level, if confirmed, would be well above the tender’s first-round offers and a winning 400 million-euro bid that had been submitted by Azerbaijan’s Socar to a previous tender, also offering 66 percent of DESFA, which was not finalized.

In another bonus, the government appears to have secured Greek State rights for natural gas projects and infrastructure of strategic interest in a shareholders’ agreement to accompany the transfer of DESFA’s 66 percent to a new strategic investor.

DESFA bids to finally be opened at end of this week - ENERGY PRESS

26 March 2018

Offers made by two bidding teams to an international tender offering a 66 percent stake of DESFA, the natural gas grid operator, are finally expected to be opened at the end of this week, a month and a half after they had been submitted.

TAIPED, the state privatization fund, has virtually completed its thorough processing and inspections of the offers submitted by the two bidding consortiums, while the participating teams have provided responses as to which respective team member plans to assume the management role, sources have informed.

For quite some time now, officials and pundits have appeared confident the offers may exceed 500 million euros, 25 percent over an offer made by Azerbaijan’s Socar in a previous and unfinished sale attempt.

EIB approves 932 mln euro loan for TANAP gas pipeline - REUTERS

MARCH 15, 2018 / 5:48 PM
Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; editing by Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS, March 15 (Reuters) - The European Investment Bank approved 932 million euros ($1.15 billion) in financing on Thursday for the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), the largest part of a $40 billion project to bring new gas supplies to Europe.

The so-called Southern Gas Corridor is expected to bring around 16 billion cubic metres per year to Europe by 2020 from the Shah Deniz 2 field in Azerbaijan via TANAP through Turkey, the South Caucasus pipeline extension through Georgia and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to Greece, Albania and Italy.

Shah Deniz 2 is one of the world’s largest gas fields and is developed by a BP-led consortium.

Financing for construction of the TANAP pipeline has already been approved by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB).

Snam plans to ‘establish Athens as base for southeast Mediterranean’ - ENERGY PRESS

23/FEB/2018

Snam will aim to contribute to Greece becoming a regional energy hub in the southeast Mediterranean, Federico Ermoli, chief international assets officer at Italy’s Snam, heading one of two bidding teams vying for a 66 percent stake in DESFA, the natural gas grid operator, has stressed in an interview with Greek daily Kathimerini.

Snam and its bidding partners, Spain’s Enagás Internacional and Belgium’s Fluxys, submitted a binding offer to the DEFSA tender last Friday. Staged by TAIPED, the state privatization fund, its content is still being processed before offers are opened, probably late next week.

Another Spanish entry, Regasificadora del Noroeste (Reganosa Asset Investments) joined forces with Romania’s Transgaz and the EBRD, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, for the other offer.

“We aspire to further develop the company and contribute to making Greece an energy hub in the Mediterranean for natural gas stemming from various regions,” Ermoli remarked, while adding that DESFA requires strong partners capable of making investments for the future of the firm, country and its geopolitical role.

Commenting on Greece’s strategic importance for Snam, Ermoli said the firm intends to establish an office base in Athens to manage its activities concerning interests in the southeast Meditteranean region.

Greece gets two binding bids in gas grid sale - REUTERS

FEBRUARY 16, 2018 / 7:01 PMReporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes in Milan; Editing by Karolina Tagaris and Jane Merriman

ATHENS, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Greece has received two binding bids for a 66 percent stake in its gas grid operator DESFA, the Greek privatisation agency (HRADF) said on Friday, a sale that is a key condition of the country’s international bailout.

The agency said bids were submitted by a consortium of Italy’s Snam, Spain’s Enagas Internacional and Belgium’s Fluxys, and a consortium of Spain’s Regasificadora del Noroeste (Reganosa), Romania’s Transgaz and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Friday’s deadline for binding bids comes ahead of a euro zone finance ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Monday which will assess Greece’s bailout progress and decide on disbursing more bailout loans.

A share purchase agreement and a shareholders’ agreement for DESFA are due to be signed by April for the sale to conclude by June, before Greece exits its third bailout in August.

EBRD to loan SOPC USD 200 mn - ENTERPRISE

Monday, 5 February 2018

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is provisioning a USD 200 mn loan to the Suez Oil Processing Company (SOPC) “to finance a package of energy efficiency investments and other refurbishments and installations at the Suez refinery,” according to the EBRD project website. 

The loan is classified as a sovereign loan to Egypt and will be brought before the board for a vote on 28 March. A technical cooperation fund will allocate EUR 83k to environmental and feasibility studies.

Energean Signs US$180m RBL Facility with EBRD, BSTDB, EximBank Romania and Intesa Sanpaolo Bank to Develop Prinos Basin - ENERGEAN OIL & GAS

1 February 2018

Loan agreement finances further development of the Prinos, Prinos North and Epsilon oil fields 

Energean Oil & Gas (“Energean” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce that it has signed a reserves-based senior facility agreement (the “Agreement”), amounting to US$180 million, with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“EBRD”), the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (“BSTDB”), the Export-Import Bank of Romania EximBank SA (“ EximBank Romania”) and Banca Comerciala Intesa Sanpaolo Romania S.A (“Intesa Sanpaolo Bank”), HSBC acting as the agent bank. This Agreement is an extension to the existing US$75 million loan signed with the EBRD on 19 May 2016. 

The Agreement now includes two facilities: a senior secured reducing revolving credit facility of up to US$105 million with the EBRD and BSTDB as lenders; and a senior secured revolving credit facility of up to US$75 million arranged by EximBank Romania and having EximBank Romania and Intesa Sanpaolo Bank as lenders. 

Egypt's gas transmission strategy - PETROLEUM ECONOMIST

10 January 2018

Gerald Butt

With natural gas from the super-giant Zohr field now flowing ashore, plans are in place to make distribution of the fuel more efficient and to expand wind power

For the Egyptian government, 20 December 2017 was a red-letter day. It was when Eni produced first gas from the Zohr field 190km (118 miles) from the coast. Zohr is by far the biggest natural gas discovery in the Eastern Mediterranean, with estimated reserves of 30 trillion cubic feet. The arrival of Zohr gas ashore—at an initial rate of 350m cubic feet a day, rising to 1.2bn cf/d under Phase 1—is a major factor in the Egyptian government's decision to phase out liquefied natural gas imports during the course of this year and prepare for the restart of exports.

But the priority for the Egyptian authorities is to make sure that domestic demand for gas is satisfied—in particular for power generation. Nothing is more calculated to stoke social unrest than lengthy power cuts in Cairo and other overcrowded cities during the stiflingly hot summer months.

EBRD lends Egypt USD 200 mn to improve natural gas infrastructure - ENTERPRISE

Thursday, 28 December 2017

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending Egypt USD 200 mn to “finance the modernization of selected gas infrastructure facilities.” The EBRD loan “will be extended to the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) and its subsidiary Egyptian Natural Gas Company (GASCO) to fund the introduction of state-of-the-art technologies to recover waste heat from gas turbines used to drive gas compressors. The recovered heat will be used to produce additional energy, which will drive new electric compressors and replace fuels on-site. The introduction of new technology will lead to a reduction of over 250,000 tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per year.” Oil Minister Tarek El Molla says “the EBRD will also provide technical assistance in addition to the USD 200 mn loan, which will contribute to the upgrading of gas metering systems throughout the Egyptian gas transmission network, a key step towards an efficient and cost conscious use of energy.”

EBRD grants $500M in financing to TANAP - KALLANISH ENERGY

October 19, 2017

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved Wednesday a $500 million loan to help finance construction of the $8.6 billion Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), Kallanish Energy reports.

The project will deliver “crucial energy supplies from the Caspian Sea through to Europe along the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), and make an important contribution to the energy security and diversification (in Europe),” the EBRD said.

The 1,850-kilometer (1,150-mile) line accounts for over half of the 3,500 km (2,174-mile) SGC pipeline system, and will transport 16 billion cubic meters per year (Bcm/y – 564.8 billion cubic feet, Bcf/y) by 2020.

Turkey will consume 6 Bcm/y (211.8 Bcf) and the remaining 10 Bcm/y (353 Bcf/y) have already been contracted by several European gas traders, mostly in the Italian market.

Some $1.4 billion of financing loans were granted last year for TANAP — $800 million from the World Bank and $600 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The European Investment Bank (EIB) is considering to finance $2 billion of the project, but its final decision is due next month.

EBRD to provide $500M for TANAP -DAILY SABAH - ANADOLU AGENCY

ANKARA, August 4, 2017

On Oct. 18, the board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) should approve a $500 million financing package for Azerbaijan's Southern Gas Corridor Inc. to be used for the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, the largest part of the Southern Gas Corridor.

An EBRD statement pointed out that the World Bank approved $800 million in financing and the Asian Development Bank approved $600 million in financing for TANAP, which will cost $8.6 billion.

Also, the statement indicates the European Investment Bank is considering providing financing for TANAP, emphasizing that the project is important for Turkey and Europe in terms of energy security and resource diversity.

Cyprus is “potential pivot for gas development”, ENI International Affairs Director says - FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE / CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

Active (May 2017) in Cyprus' EEZ

Friday, 12 May, 2017

Italian energy company ENI sees Cyprus as a “potential pivot for gas development” in the region, Lapo Pistelli, the company`s International Affairs Director, told a conference on Thursday, noting that should the Levantine region become a gas hub, “Cyprus is at the crossroads of every potential destination”.

The investment opportunities offered in Cyprus were discussed on Thursday at a special session on Cyprus’ economy, titled “Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean: Attractive investment opportunities within a secure business environment”, in the framework of the EBRD`s Annual Meeting, taking place in Nicosia.

Energy, Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister, Yiorgos Lakkotrypis, noted Cyprus` energy potential as well as the investment opportunities offered in the tourism and hospitality sector of the island.