The Natural Gas Public Company of Cyprus DEFA, through its affiliate Natural Gas Infrastructure Company (ETYFA), has secured a 20-year, €150m loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for its LNG import terminal project worth €289m. The company has secured already a €101m sponsorship from the European Commission through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and €43m from the Electricity Authority of Cyprus’s participation in ETYFA.
The LNG project would consist of a floating terminal moored off Vassilikos that would be commissioned in 2022 and that would supply gas to the 260 MW Mari gas-fired CCGT power plant, currently under construction and expected to be operational in 2021. The regasification terminal will be fully owned by the state of Cyprus and is expected to help reduce power generation costs by 15% to 25% by substituting gas for crude oil. In December 2019, the Ministry of Energy of Cyprus signed an agreement with a consortium of China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering, Metron, Hudong-Zhongua Shipbuilding and Wilhelmsen Ship Management to build the island's first LNG import terminal.