A STUDY is underway to assess the respective roles of the Natural Gas Public Company (DEFA) and the Cyprus National Hydrocarbons Company(KRETYK) and ensure there is no overlap, the energy and trade minister said yesterday.
Giorgos Lakkotrypis was speaking to newsmen shortly after meeting with the President. The minister confirmed they discussed the “future” of the two entities.
Quizzed on whether the government was thinking about merging the two entities – as widely rumoured in the local media – Lakkotrypis said the Attorney-general’s office, assisted by Norwegian legal consultants, has initiated a study into “the institutional framework and jurisdictions of each organisation, which ought to be distinct.”
Asked to comment on remarks by DISY leader Averof Neophytou for the need of a moratorium on appointments to the civil service over the next three months, the minister said he agreed in principle.
“There needs to take place a rationalisation within all the organisations, of all the executive directors not only at DEFA but in other organisations as well,” he said.
The government is said to be wary of disbanding or reshuffling DEFA as that might create legal complications due to the fact the organisation is in the midst of assessing tenders for short-term purchases of natural gas.
It’s not clear what other motives, if any, lie behind the mooted restructuring of DEFA and KRETYK. Sources speculated the move may hide a political power play: DISY had always expressed reservations about the set-up of the two entities, particularly DEFA, thought to be dominated by personalities affiliated to the DIKO party.
The same sources wondered also why the energy regulatory authority (CERA) has so far been kept in the dark about the government’s intentions toward the two organisations.
Earlier this month the government decided to sack DEFA chairman Costas Ioannou over actions he took in his previous role as head of CERA.
DEFA is a public utility tasked with distributing natural gas to the local market, while KRETYK is a state-controlled oil and gas company responsible for developing, managing, exporting and operating gas.

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