The technical commission of Petroecuador recommended to the general director of the public company to declare the tender for the concession of the Amistad gas field annulled. The recommendation cancels a process that began last August 9 and aimed to increase the national production of natural gas (from 25 million to 100 million cubic feet), whose destination was the Machala thermal gas plant – crucial to avoid blackouts. and supplying industry with this important fuel, cheaper and cleaner than diesel.

A committee composed of now former manager Reinaldo Armijos (he was replaced by Eduardo Xavier Miranda Patiño on December 11); research manager, Francisco Paz; Deputy Finance Manager, Luis Gencon Vásquez; Jorge Canelos, lawyer, and Fabián Morales, secretary, issued a recommendation to declare desertion. At the moment, the only consortium still competing for the contract: Green Dynamics (made up of GreenPower and Resptima) complained about it.

The conclusion of the said Commission is that the company Green Dynamics did not meet the requirements from the envelope corresponding to Phase 1. They explained that the interested company should prove experience on projects offshore as an operator or service provider in the drilling, completion or workover of wells, for five years from 2013 to the present in fields that have achieved natural gas production equal to or greater than ten million cubic feet per day.

According to the Commission, the company failed to meet this requirement and “could fail to drill or rehabilitate gas wells without being able to achieve expected levels of gas production.”

It also requested that the company or consortium have a minimum net worth of $30 million in two consecutive years from 2019 to 2022. Both requirements would be met, according to the consortium’s lawyer, Jorge Luis Hidalgo.

As for the time and quantity of gas produced, it is stated that the consortium doubled the needs and that in a shorter time than requested. However, he tries to present an addition to the already presented contract, from which it follows that he had an extension for more than two years, and with the same contract he would have satisfied the required experience of more than five years. Regarding the issue of 30 million dollars, he explains that consortia are formed in a complementary manner and that therefore the entire consortium should be analyzed, not the companies separately. However, he assures that Green Power is part of a Spanish business conglomerate from the Basque Country called Grupo Centauro and that its industrial division alone has net assets of more than 45 million euros. He also claims that the terms of reference were changed during the proceedings and were not clearly stated in the minutes with questions and answers.

Hidalgo says that “Petroecuador’s middle managers don’t seem to have discovered that we have a country risk of more than 2,000 points. That the Machala thermal power plant is underutilized, that there is a shortage of electricity, that the consumption of electric diesel has increased by 300%, which is also imported, and that we paid Colombia 41 cents per kwh on average for the month of November.

According to Hidalgo, certain high authorities in the sector and middle managers of Petroecuador in the previous government made every effort to make this tender fall and they had no idea that it would persist in spite of everything. From Minister Fernando Santos creating uncertainty about the use of the Campo Amistad infrastructure to the memorandum a few days after the presentation of envelope 1 recommending that the tender be declared invalid, they are proof of this, says Hidalgo.

This would be the third or fourth time the process has been thwarted. “The only profit from this is the fuel importers and possibly the gas importers, who, despite the fact that the tender was declared invalid, will press for the procedure to be restarted, even though they know that there are 60 percent more of them. more expensive than production.” national”. Hidalgo says that the new government, which will make decisions from now on, must be aware that the absence of a concession will ultimately prolong the risk of power outages until 2024. (AND)