A few days before the end of the year, the Minister of Energy, Fernando Santos Alvite, ratified that the tender for the Amistad field will take place this month, as he had announced when he took office as Secretary of State.
He explained that said tender is priority one, however he acknowledged that it had not been possible to hold the meeting of the Petroecuador board of directors yet, due to the fact that the appointment of the chairman of the board of the Public Companies Coordinating Company (EMCO) was yet to be appointed, who in turn He also presides over the board of directors of Petroecuador and of all other public companies.
However, On December 18, it was already known that Joaquín Ponce Díaz was appointed by the President of the Republic as his representative before the EMCO.
In this sense, the minister said that once said appointment has been made, he considers that until the end of December they will meet in the board of directors and item number one on the agenda will be the Friendship field.
The official’s statements, in an interview with Diario EL UNIVERSO, come to light in the middle of the discontent from various sectors, both business and political, due to the lack of completion of the tender for the Amistad field. This field that currently produces 25 million cubic feet a day could quadruple that figure with a specialized operation and private investment. This domestically produced gas would be much cheaper than imported gas.
Jorge Luis Hidalgo, manager of GreenPower, explained that to them as a company interested in participating in said tender They are concerned about the delay in the bidding of the field despite the announcement that the minister has already made. However, he also assured that other worrying signs have been seen in the industry itself.
The first sign of concern is that it has been known that the consulting company Arthur d’Little that would be advising Petroecuador It has indicated as an option to merge the Friendship field with a field in the Amazon and in said merger to make a separation of personnel. As he indicated, a field should not be mixed offshore of natural gas with another of oil in the Amazon and the dismissal of technical personnel would deteriorate the technical capital for the bidding process for the gas field.
He also assured that it has been possible to notice that for Petroecuador management, apparently the only priority issue is the Esmeraldas refinery, because all the other projects are behind schedule.
A third worrying point is that apparently there is no coordination between Petroecuador, Celec and the Ministry of Energy. Because although the Amistad field has not yet been taken out, on the other hand, the tender for the 400 MW thermogas and the 500,000 volt interconnection project from Chorrillos to Peru is advancing. The question is, with what gas do you want this thermoelectric to work?, he said. If the issue of Campo Amistad is not expedited, then it is forcing the purchase of gas on the foreign market, 40% more expensive, which favors importers.
A similar case, added Hidalgo, happens with gas from the Amazon (associated) and the electrical system. He explained that there is currently Shushufindi Substation, 230/138 kW, 300 MWA ($26 million investment) which is energized and ready to operate in 2017 and incredibly not connected to the Shushufindi Industrial Complex, which is less than three kilometers away. Currently, the Shushufindi refinery consumes about 60 MW of generation with imported diesel. Additionally, a tender is underway for the Northeastern Transmission System, which is a good project because it brings hydroelectricity to the oil fields at 7 cents a kilowatt. However, another tender is underway to generate electricity with gas from lighters, which would cost 17 cents per kilowatt. Currently the cost of generation with imported diesel exceeds 40 cents.
Meanwhile, From the Assembly, Diana Pesántez, an independent assembly member and member of the Permanent Specialized Commission for Economic Development and Microenterprise, requested information from Minister Santos on Campo Amistad on December 19.
In her letter, the assembly member expressed interest in knowing the reasons why the tender for the Amistad gas field has not been completed so far.
It asks for the planned schedule for the bidding, the definitive conclusion and the beginning of the operation, as well as the amount of the required investment. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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