Powerglobe

ENI’s FSRU proposal latest Crete energy sufficiency idea

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Italian energy giant ENI has come up with the latest proposal for a role in resolving Crete’s energy shortage threat, ascertaining it is ready to provide an FSRU unit for LNG storage and gasification that could be moored off the island.

High-polluting diesel generators operating on Crete, Greece’s biggest island, must cease operating by the end of this year, according to European Commission requirements.

The ENI proposal could cover the energy supply needs of power utility PPC diesel-fueled generators planned for conversion to natural gas, as well as a 100-MW gas-fired facility.

Prior to this interest from ENI, energy firms forwarded a series of proposals, all different, to counter the Cretan matter.

GEK Terna was the first to emerge with a recommendation entailing the transfer to Crete of Heron I, a power plant in the Viotia prefecture, northwest of Athens, offering a 150-MW capacity. Qatar’s Powerglobe followed with its Power4Crete proposal, an FSRU for electricity generation. Greek power utility PPC proposed an upgrade of its facilities on the island.

Also, Greek gas grid operator DESFA has included the establishment of a gas terminal at Atherinolakkos, southeastern Crete, into its development program.

Major players meet DESFA sale’s first-round deadline

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Local energy market authorities have declared as a success the turnout of virtually all the major European operators for a renewed international tender offering 66 percent of DESFA, Greece’s natural gas grid operator.

Though still at a preliminary stage, the sale procedure, whose deadline for first-round non-binding offers expired yesterday, has drawn two formidable consortiums that appear prepared to make serious bids for the DESFA majority stake on offer.

One of these fancied teams is made up of Italy’s Snam, Spain’s Enagas, Belgium’s Fluxys and Dutch operator Gasunie and the other Romania’s Transgas and France’s GRTgaz.

The first of these two bidding teams appears to be the firm favorite as three of its members also hold stakes in the TAP consortium developing the TAP gas pipeline, to run across northern Greece, through Albania and the Adriatic Sea to Italy. The emergence of the TAP-related entry for the DESFA sale certainly adds clout and bidding potential to the sale procedure.

The second major bidding team should not be underestimated. France’s GRTgaz stands one of the EU’s biggest energy sector firms operating the most extensive network of gas pipelines.

Regasificadora del Noroeste S.A, a second Spanish firm that met yesterday’s deadline, can be regarded as an outsider. It operates a pipeline network in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia.

Questions linger over the prospects of other tender participants such as Qatar’s Powerglobe, US firm Intergrated Utility Services and Australian entry Macquarie Infrastructure, a non-EU group taking part as one of its subsidiaries is linked to an Italian network operator.