Cyprus invited expressions of interest yesterday for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG), a precursor to a selection process for gas coming online by 2014.
The island seeks a supplier that can provide LNG for 20 years, in an attempt to wean it off the carbon-belching heavy fuel now firing its energy grids.
DEFA, its newly created natural gas company, wants gas online in 2014, and assurances from their prospective supplier that it could also be provided earlier if needed. “Our aim is to conclude on a 20-year supply contract before the end of 2010,” Costas Ioannou, DEFA’s executive chairman, told Reuters. Companies that submit expressions of interest will be screened in a process expected to take up to one-and-a-half months.
(KATHIMERINI, 11/11/2009)