Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry in Shanghai has almost completed the conversion work on the FSRU which will serve the first Cyprus LNG import terminal in Vasilikos.
The unit of Cosco Shipping said last month that the 2002-built LNG vessel, Etyfa Prometheas, previously known as Galea, had entered the dry dock for the second time for painting and other work.
Prior to that, it completed the lifting of the regasification module and the compressor module on the 135,000-cbm vessel.
According to a statement by Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry, the FSRU left the dry dock on Saturday with a new paint job and a new name, completing the last major segment of the FSRU conversion project.
Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry will now work to prepare the unit for delivery, but it did not say when it plans to hand over the converted FSRU.
Cyprus announced the start of construction of its first LNG import facility at Vassilikos in July 2020.
The Natural Gas Infrastructure Company (ETYFA), a unit of DEFA, previously signed an EPCOM (engineer, procure, construct, operate, and maintain) contract with a consortium for the project.
The consortium comprises of state-owned China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering, a unit of CNPC, Metron Energy Applications, Hudong Zhonghua, and Wilhelmsen Ship Management.
Besides the converted FSRU, the project includes a jetty, a pipeline, and other onshore and offshore related infrastructure in Vasilikos.
From there, gas will be piped to shoreside infrastructure with links to the country’s energy grid mainly for power generation purposes.
ETYFA previously expected to launch the LNG import project for power generation in summer 2022.
However, it seems that delays related to the Covid-19 pandemic affected the timeline of the project.
Recent local media reports suggest that the contractors first expected to complete the project worth some 315 million euros ($335 million) in July of this year and then moved the deadline to October 2023.