This October 18, the deadline for the delivery of envelope 1 expires, after the first change in the tender schedule for the contracting of certain services with financing by the contractor for the execution of drilling and well completion activities; and, the construction and expansion of the necessary facilities in the field of activity, within Block 6, which is managed by EP Petroecuador for the production of natural gas.”

However, the new request for a postponement of one of the interested companies for the tender, and the lack of funding reported by the other, are signs that the process cannot be completed successfully, at least in this Government.

The government declares a state of emergency in the power sector in order to speed up energy contracting processes

The request for a new schedule by Green Power, a company that is part of the Basque business conglomerate in Spain Grupo Centauro, was sent on October 17 to the new manager of Petroecuador, Reynaldo Armijos. The company is concerned about the lack of clarity that currently exists on whether the Campo Amistad infrastructure will be used for the supposed import of gas (six months) to combat the dry season. Various energy authorities have been announcing this for several months, but everything depends on international expertise, for which it is not known whether it will arrive or not.

In the meantime, the Sycar company informed this newspaper that they are still interested in participating in the Campo Amistad tender, but that they were unable to secure financing. “There is not much appetite for the business model proposed by Petroecuador,” said Nelson Jaramillo Pita, a representative of the American company. In any case, he said that if Petroecuador extended the deadline, they could continue to investigate the matter. Jaramillo commented that if there is geological certainty or a guarantee of payment for drilling services, companies could anticipate part of the financing with the progress of each operation or drilling, but since payment is contingent on gas production, “geological risk It forces you to have all the financing and then the project becomes very difficult and risky for a service company.”

In the meantime, the company Green Power in its letter asked the new manager of Petroecuador to establish a clear position on the use or non-use of the infrastructure of the Amistad field for gas imports.

In this regard, they request that an expert report should be submitted by an international expert in order to determine whether it is profitable or unusable, or whether adaptation of the mentioned infrastructure (platform and/or gas pipeline) is necessary. ). Additionally, it seeks clarification as to whether the imports will only be done for the next 6 months or three years in the dry months, as we understand that bids will be presented.

In this context, Green Power requested that EP Petroecuador create a new schedule to present envelope 1, because although there was a change in the schedule, “the request for that change was not fulfilled.”

The company has confirmed that it has completed all previous processes to be part of the tender and regrets that in the first days of October the Ministry of Energy issued an agreement ordering Petroecuador to carry out the necessary procedures and logistics to supply an additional 45 million cubic feet compared to the currently secured Amistad field , in order to use the full capacity of the 230 MW Machala Termogás power plant, a supply that should be available from November 2023.

Will there be a power outage? “I can only say that there is a well-designed plan, and we freely believe that there is none,” says the Minister of Energy

For Green Power, this fact puts its participation at risk.

Greater national gas production could guarantee greater energy sustainability of the country in the future. However, the issue of Campo Amistad kept getting postponed. This, while the country is threatened with a power outage due to low water. And while Ecuador buys very expensive thermal energy from Colombia (56 cents kw/h), more expensive even than Ecuadorian thermal energy.

The ministry’s plan would be for Colombia to continue selling us this expensive energy product until November, but for gas solutions to arrive at the end of November, through Amistad’s infrastructure or via barges with flexible hoses. This would not be possible according to Jaramillo Pita, from Sycar, who is also an importer and therefore knows this market. For Jaramillo Pita, the import of gas is becoming something that cannot be postponed. “Even more when we pay 56 cents for energy to Colombia, which is extremely burdensome for the country. I believe, today more than ever, that it is urgently necessary to import gas for Termogás Machala and contract the production of fuel oil energy.” However, he believes that “no solution for importing gas, whatever it may be, will be ready for November”.

This newspaper asked Petroecuador whether or not it would give way to the new extension, but there was no response by the time of going to press for this edition.