Engineers from public natural gas infrastructure company Etyfa on Wednesday conducted an on-site inspection of the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Prometheas as part of the certification process for its future use in Cyprus.

Etyfa said the inspection’s objective was “to personally verify the condition of the vessel and conduct an on-site inspection of its facilities and management”.

The inspection, it added, “was deemed very important so as to demonstrate the readiness of both the vessel and the management company to complete the work, with a view to its certification as an FSRU in the autumn”.

Earlier in the year, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou had said that in addition to the inspection and certification process, repairs will also be made to the vessel while it is in Malaysia, with it understood that the ship is missing a nitrogen generator.

Then, he said, Etyfa will “request expressions of interest for its use” until the under-construction liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Vasiliko is ready for its arrival.

He had earlier said that the government’s goal for is for the LNG terminal to be complete by the end of this year, with the government also aiming to be able to channel natural gas into conventional power generation in early 2026.

“I know this is an optimistic goal, but we must set optimistic goals,” he said.

At the end of March, the government made a request to increase the share capital of Etyfa by €70 million, with a view to financing the Vasiliko terminal’s completion.

The natural gas public company’s (Defa) budget – just shy of €85.9m – was eventually passed through parliament.

Cyprus’ LNG project has been hit with various delays since it was initially inaugurated in December 2019 with an initial plan for the terminal to be complete within 22 months.

Work had even ground to a halt last year after the CPP-Metron Consortium (CMC) tore up its contract with the government to construct the terminal.

CMC had accused Etyfa of “bullying” and of leaving them to work “without proper or timely payments” for years.

They added Etyfa and its advisers on the project “had little to no relevant experience in any of the essential components for delivering a project of this nature: oil and gas, engineering, procurement and construction works and conversion of an LNG carrier to a floating storage regasification unit.”

“The position has become untenable. Contrary to the promises that were made by the [energy] minister in March, CMC has still not received any payment whatsoever for its work in 2024.

The FSRU had been one of the key points of contention between Etyfa and CMC, with CMC insisting that the vessel was ready in Shanghai and that Etyfa had “inexplicably refused to take delivery” of it while also frequently not meeting payment deadlines.

The situation worsened after the contract was terminated when the European Commission demanded that Cyprus repay almost €69 million which had been paid in grants for the terminal.

The energy ministry had announced it had received a letter from the European Commission which listed “possible irregularities which occurred during the evaluation period of the tender” for the construction project.

The commission’s letter, according to the ministry, “alleges two substantive violations”, the first being the criteria for awarding the tender [to CMC] in December 2019 and the second being the signing of the bilateral agreement upon approval of an additional €25m in funding in June 2022.

The European public prosecutor’s office (EPPO) had earlier in the same month publicly announced the opening of an investigation into possible procurement fraud, misappropriation of EU funds and corruption related to the Vasiliko LNG terminal.