The Peruvian government and the Camisea Consortium (CC), led by Argentina’s Pluspetrol, have taken a first step to resume the renegotiation of gas contracts. This was stated by the head of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem), Oscar Vera, who also stressed that “the partners are willing to talk.”
It is a position of the State against the clauses with which lots 88 and 56 are operated, a complexity that has previously been raised by various political tents, including Peru Libre, Popular Action, Popular Renewal and Fujimorism itself.
“It is a point that even President Dina Boluarte herself has asked us. We are going to call a meeting to return to these issues. We have it on the agenda,” Vera told La República.
The renegotiation agenda has aired, in recent years, a review of the parity prices of LPG and the construction of a pipeline that brings it from Ica to Lima (currently, it does so by ship), a standard rate of natural gas to install a petrochemical plant and, above all, the export agreements of the lot 56.
The former Minister of Energy and Mines Carlos Herrera Descalzi regrets, however, that some numbers do not add up over time in favor of Peru. He explains that, to value the gas, a plant would have to be built, for example, in 2023, which would be ready in 2026, but the Camisea contract expires in 2040. Only a 14-year horizon.
Instead, it insists on ensuring the reserves that have been depleted in the last decade, due to a weak exploration effort by the CC. He warns that, in any case, the 18 years that Peru LNG had to export the gas ends in 2028, so there is not so much left to rescue in terms of taxes.
horizontal dialog
It is not the first time that the contracts would be reviewed —both at the request of the company and the State— nor the last in recent years. The ex-owner of Minem of the government of Pedro Castillo, Iván Merino, recalls the good will of the company, although he now doubts the legitimacy of this new process.
“We met with the CC. They came especially to talk in September 2021 and they stayed to establish a dialogue, change the rules of the contract in a consensual manner, ”she recalls.
Similar situation for the former president of Perupetro Aurelio Ochoa Alencastre, who in 2012 came to agree on a special price to encourage the local manufacture of fertilizers, but at that time there was no transport infrastructure.
However, it recognizes that the first and most urgent thing is to demand an aggressive exploration program and a change in the valuation modality of the exported gas. From there, everything.
The Republic tried to collect the contributions from the Pluspetrol company, but received no response.
Poor export profit
The Camisea Consortium is made up of the companies Pluspetrol, Hunt Oil, SK Innovation, Tecpetrol, Repsol and Sonatrach. Meanwhile, Perupetro is the entity responsible for negotiating hydrocarbon contracts on behalf of Peru.
Minem assures that there is natural gas “for 50 years and two more Camiseas”. However, Osinergmin reported in 2021 that the resource for Block 56 would not reach more than 2031.
It has been criticized that the value of gas for export at the wellhead is reduced when prices abroad are low and intermediate costs are discounted, and the way in which the latter have been prepared “is detrimental to the country,” according to specialists.
Source: Larepublica
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