---

The government of Cyprus has invited parties to express interest in the construction of a fuel storage terminal in Vasilikos, located on the southern coast of the country.

The invitation by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism is for an expression of interest in the development and ownership of the Vasilikos Oil Terminal and joint venture company. The procedure will be open to individual investors as well as to groups of companies.

The expression of interest will be used to pre-qualify applicants, based on technical, financial and commercial criteria. Applicants that qualify under this procedure will then be invited for participation in the negotiated procedure.

The deadline for applicants is Friday February 11th, 2011.

The announcement by the government of Cyprus follows comments made in October by Cypriot Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Antonis Paschalides, who said that the government was planning to construct its own fuel-storage facility at Vasilikos.

In July, Dutch operator Vitol Tank Terminals International (VTTI) announced plans to build a major oil import and distribution terminal, also in the industrial area of Vasilikos.

The new €100 million facility will be a 340,000-cubic metre (cbm) storage terminal for fuel oil, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, and will be 100 percent owned, funded and operated by VTTI.

Following the comments made by Paschalides, VTTI announced that it also intends to expand the Vasilikos terminal by a further 210,000 cbm in order to bring the facility's total capacity to around 550,000 cubic meters.

VTTI will be developing the terminal with Cyprus-based building contractor Joannou and Paraskevaides (J&P), Nejst. Construction work is due to begin on Monday 17th January 2011 and the facility is set for completion in 2012.

Last year, KODAP - a government-owned company set up to manage oil reserves - was reported to have 612,300 tonnes of fuel stored in the Netherlands, Greece and Cyprus.