Cyprus seeks more oil for electricity power in 2013

The Electricity Authority of Cyprus is seeking more than 1.2 mln tonnes of gasoil and fuel oil for next year's power generation, a 15% increase from its 2012 purchase, as its electricity resources remain stretched after the main power generating facility at Vassilikos, which generated most of the island's electricity, was almost totally destroyed by a blast of decaying munitions stored at a nearby navy base last year.
The disaster forced authorities to put ageing plants back online, lease mobile generators, tap into underutilised wind and solar farms and get electricity supplies from the Turkish Cypriot side.
The EAC is now seeking 408,000 tonnes of 0.1% sulphur gasoil for delivery into Vassilikos over December 2012 to January 2014, a tender document showed on Tuesday.
It is also seeking 405,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil with maximum 1% sulphur for delivery into Vassilikos power station and another 418,000 tonnes for delivery into the auxiliary power stations at Dhekelia or Moni.
The cargoes are to be priced off benchmark Mediterranean quotes. Both tenders close on August 31 and are valid until December 29.
While the size of the contract was large, as supply for the whole year was on offer, traders said the volume was comparable to previous years and in line with expectations.
The EAC last bought 492,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil for delivery in 2012 from Petrobras at premiums of $26-28 a tonne over Mediterranean Italy quotes.
It also bought 374,000 tonnes of the product from trader Totsa at premiums of $24-26 a tonne.
Totsa also supplied about 200,000 tonnes of gasoil at a premium of $26.35 a tonne to Mediterranean quotes.