Petroecuador has once again postponed the tender schedule for the Amistad gas field, due to the doubts of interested companies, who believe that the prospects for the tender have been overshadowed by Ministerial Agreement 019, which was recently issued by the Ministry of Energy. This agreement mandates Petroecuador to import gas in 30 days. But there were other announcements in the media that on October 11, the statement of an international technician will be published, which will show whether it is possible to use the same Amista facilities – which are in the concession process – for the transport of imported gas or not. .

Thus, although this Friday, October 6, it was expected that eleven companies interested in the concession for drilling and completion of wells, as well as the expansion and construction of facilities in block 6, would deliver envelope 1, which should have contained data on technical capacities. and experience of the company, the date was postponed to October 19. At the same time, the other milestones of the concession pass in a month, and while the award was expected on October 31, it will now be November 29, while the signing of the contract has been moved from November 15 to December 14. .

The delay comes after a letter from one of the companies interested in participating in the concession sent to the management of Petroecuador, in which the specified delay is requested. Jorge Luis Hidalgo, the legal representative of Green Power, submitted this request, explaining in his letter of October 4 that these announcements jeopardize their participation and that therefore more time would be needed to familiarize themselves with the new conditions in case it was decided to transport imported gas via the Amistad platform.

“With deep surprise, yesterday, October 3, 2023, the Minister of Energy and Mining, Dr. Fernando Santos Alvite, issued Contract No. MEM-MEM-2023-0019-AM,” Hidalgo said in the letter. Note that this ministerial agreement orders Petroecuador to import natural gas, exclusively for the needs of the Termogás Machala plant. This means that Petroecuador is supplying an additional 45 million cubic feet to those delivered, in order to use the full capacity of this 230 MW thermogas plant. It is also indicated that this stock must be available from November 2023.

Indeed, the agreement was issued amid several instructions that Energetika is giving to other sectors to deal with the dry season that has already caused some power outages.

Furthermore, Hidalgo indicates that Minister Santos’ confirmation that the international technician’s report will be known on October 11 made it clear to the company that this issue “could change the tender and, above all, the knowledge gained during the technical visit to the infrastructure.” Campo Amistada, likewise, all the information in the Infrastructure DataPack which includes plans, blueprints of the main platform, etc.”

In this sense, the company said: “We are in the unfortunate situation a few days after submitting the documentation for envelope 1 that we are risking our participation.”

It also clarifies that what happened leaves “a clear element of force majeure that would limit our ability to responsibly bid for this tender,” he said.

In this sense, in the letter, the legal representative of Green Power requested that a new schedule be made for the presentation of envelope 1 at least until October 11, which will be the date “when it is understood that this report of the international expert will be delivered to the EP Petroecuador and “that we deliver it to the bidders with the intention of studying it and adapting our analysis to the new reality.”

Although the power authorities mentioned that the tender does not have to be complicated with the possibility of importing gas for only six months, the company Green Power believes that “without knowing the conclusions of this report, it is not responsible to continue with the process, since it would obviously jeopardize the initial conditions of this tender.”

The company, which is part of the Basque-Spanish business conglomerate Grupo Centauro, reminded Petroecuador that they have completed several steps necessary to participate in the process to increase the production of national natural gas, much cheaper than imported gas.

The concession process was announced in this Government in November 2021. But it was not completed during the administration of Juan Carlos Berme or Xavier Vera. Minister Fernando Santos promised to promote the concession by the end of 2022, but that did not happen. Now the new deadline for signing the contract is December 2023, just before the Government’s decision.