“As good businesspeople do, they will try to attract these companies to Limassol port instead,” Demetriades said in an interview to state-radio CyBC. “Hydrocarbon companies are not ping pong (balls) to take them from one port to another. They need stability, they need to be somewhere they want to be and where they are wanted and not to see decisions change every now and then”.

Demetriades said that the question over where hydrocarbon companies would move their base in Cyprus would not affect the agreement reached in negotiations with the three winners of the competition for the commercialisation of the Limassol port’s operations. A consortium led by Germany’s EuroGate was awarded the container business at the port, while two other consortiums, both led by Dubai Ports World, won the maritime service and general cargo part.

The Transport Minister said that a technical committee tasked with preparing recommendations for a move to the Limassol port – announced after he and his colleague energy minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis met with representatives of the oil and gas companies on February 15 – have already held initial meetings.

“Consultations have gone ahead and I don’t see any issue with respect to the area that Total requires,” Demetriades said. “The issue is progressing in a positive way and will soon have a positive outcome.

“We are talking about the port of Limassol at this point; I don’t understand why we should talk about the Larnaca port,” he said in response to a question about the probability of a new, this time favourable, vote of the Larnaca municipal council after a recent change in its composition.

French energy giant Total is scheduled to drill for gas in the second half of 2015.

Source: Cyprus Mail