The Imports of natural gas strengthen for the period 2023 – 2025, with tenders prepared by the Ecuadorian Electricity Corporation (Celec EP), whose administration is headed by Gonzalo Uquillas. In the press release, he stated that he invited all companies authorized to trade (import and distribute) natural gas in the country to submit expressions of interest and a reference price for the supply of natural gas for Termogás Machala and for two more factories: Álvaro Tinajero and Enrique García (Guayaquil). You are receiving offers right now. .

At the same time, a tender was announced for Campo Amistad, for which there is interest 23 companies and even a state company of the Dominican Republic, for national gas production, has not yet been finalized, despite countless announcements by the authorities, including Minister Fernando Santos, that it is ready to go live. Coincidentally, this Friday Petroecuador reported that the competition to capture the gas from the lighters in which 120 million cubic feet of gas had been flared was declared void.

In this way, the processes in which Celec is now engaged open the door to signing extensive contracts with gas importers, while domestic gas production, necessary to guarantee energy sustainability, lags behind.

It is about the fact that these days Celec EP reported that it is structuring a plan to introduce natural gas “to replace liquid fuels such as diesel and fuel oil, which are more expensive than natural gas” for the mentioned plants.

In the case of the existing Campo Amistad infrastructure, “the lease costs established by Petroecuador should be taken into account; while, in the case of Enrique García, Álvaro Tinajero and the new thermal power plant of approximately 200 MW (similar to the Electroquil plant), the proponent must take into account the associated costs and execution time for the logistics of transporting natural gas to these plants,” says Celec.

Additionally, the public company announced The commercial operation of the 77 MW gas turbine is expected to begin in January 2026 and June 2027. that is, 110 MW steam turbines, which, added to the Machala I units, would make a 325.4 MW Machala combined cycle project. “This gas turbine takes into account an additional maximum consumption of 20 million cubic feet per day,” he said in his statement.

Due to higher planned demand, the import plan is divided into three phases.

Phase 1: Immediately, that is from October 2023 to March 2024, Termogás Machala would require 60 million cubic feet of gas per day;

Phase 2: In the short term, from October 2024 to March 2025, 102 million cubic feet per day would be required;

Phase 3: In the medium term, in the dry seasons of 2026 and 2027, 122 million cubic feet of gas per day will be needed, and in 2028, 174 million cubic feet of gas will be needed.

According to Celec, Termogás Machal’s production currently depends on natural gas from Campo Amistad. However, he assured that “the availability of this resource during the period 2014-2022 represented a continuous decline.” It also indicates that the lack of natural gas does not allow compliance with the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Energy and Mines, which call for higher production from the thermal power park, for the dry season of 2023-2025. The offshore gas block, Amistad, produces barely 20 million cubic meters although it has a potential of 100 million cubic meters.

For Jorge Luis Hidalgo, energy expert and manager of Green Power, a company interested in investing in the national sector of natural gas production, Celec’s announcement represents a revival of the spirit of imports, under the pretext of the urgency of the dry season.

Hidalgo recalled that during the time of former Minister René Ortiz, Ecuador was considered to be an oil country, not a gas country. When the reality is that there is no oil country in the world that does not have gas: “Ecuador not only has gas in abundance, but burns it in the Oriente lighters and holds important gas deposits in its offshore waters in Block 6 ready to be tapped “, He said.

He also pointed out that the current Minister of Energy, Fernando Santos Alvite, was an adviser to Minister Ortiz, and that together with Undersecretary for Exploration and Production María Elisa Soledispa (who was just replaced in the management of Petroecuador) Juan Carlos Bermeo, at that time the manager of Petroamazonas, and (from of the private sector) Carlos Pérez García, who was an external consultant to the company New Fortress Energy, opened the lease of the Campo Amistad facilities for the import of natural gas and the supply of thermal power plants.

However, facing Unsolicited Proposal (SNP) from New Fortress, Petroecuador It has already reported that the use of the platform and pipeline to be shared with the FSRU (natural gas import barge) is technically unfeasible. This would be reported to New Fortress itself as well as the importer Sycar.

For Hidalgo, a country that wants its energy security must allow national gas production to compete on equal terms with imports. Those who benefit from this policy are importers. However, the country loses because imported gas costs 40 percent of domestic production, he says. Additionally, he asserted that due to the country’s hydrological conditions of six months of rain, the need for thermal power plants is minimal. However, if a barge (FSRU) is engaged, its personnel and logistics must work 365 days a year. Since they cannot do without it in the rainy season, the result is that imported gas becomes even more expensive compared to national gas.

Hidalgo made several observations about the risks of the current policy of promoting gas imports: