Maintaining the aqueduct requires about $ 2.6 million annually. Liquidation of the refinery has little progress.
The maintenance and commissioning of the aqueduct, one of the tangible assets of the Pacific Refinery (RDP) in liquidation, has become a headache for those in charge of this entity, and has even received comments from part of the Comptroller General of the State (CGE).
This aqueduct, about 94 kilometers long and which rises from the La Esperanza dam in Bolívar canton, runs through seven cantons and reaches the El Aromo area in Manta.
The objective of the construction of this pipeline, which cost more than $ 273 million and was executed by the Brazilian company Odebrecht, was to bring raw water for the daily processing of some 300,000 barrels of oil, which was the goal of the Government of the former President Rafael Correa.
The regime of that time ordered that the raw water be delivered to three cantons that suffer severe shortages of the liquid, such as Manta, Montecristi and Jaramijó. But the problem arose when farmers began to illegally connect to the pipeline, depressurizing the delivery of the liquid.
José Herrera, who until mid-October 2021 was the liquidator of the company, indicated that maintaining the aqueduct requires about $ 2.6 million annually.
For example, the company in liquidation owes the National Electrification Corporation (CNEL) some $ 2.7 million for receiving the service to provide water to cantons that do not pay for it.
The situation of this aqueduct is one of the observations made by CGE in the report published last year, and which has already been submitted to the consideration of the RDP board of directors in liquidation, but the sessions called for October 1 and 22, That year they were not held due to the absence of representatives of Petroecuador, the largest shareholder of this joint venture, in conjunction with the Venezuelan state PDVSA.
The former official believes that the Petroecuador delegates have not wanted to meet because some complex issues must be defined and decisions must be made regarding the CGE examination that determined irregularities in this work.
Herrera indicates that one of the recommendations of the Comptroller’s Office was to continue with the legal actions against those who capture or puncture in an irregular way when the 94 kilometers of pipeline pass.
Until last October, when Herrera was still the liquidator of the Refinery, some 28 legal actions had been initiated, and even in one a lawsuit was won and the defendant was sentenced to full reparation for about $ 60,000.
Also among the recommendations of the CGE it is indicated that the municipalities that benefit from raw water must provide maintenance.
From 2017 to October 2021, RDP in liquidation has supplied some 40 million cubic meters of raw water to the Manta, Montecristi and Jaramijó water treatment plants.
Herrera indicated that solutions were sought to allow the viability and sustainability of the aqueduct, but that implied developing a new project, which is prohibited by the Companies Law, since it is a company in liquidation. For example, the idea of creating a commonwealth or consortium among the municipalities that benefit from this pipeline was raised, but no legal support was found.
However, this newspaper learned that on October 26, a meeting took place between peasant leaders and the new liquidator, Carlos Wong, in which a commitment was assumed – formalized in a document signed by the parties – in which the farmers who have punctured the aqueduct pipe in an irregular way, they must voluntarily deposit an amount in the account of the Pacific Refinery in liquidation (which is in the Banco del Pacífico) as advance of the contribution for the operation of the aqueduct.
Johnny Mendoza, spokesman for the peasants of the cantons where the aqueduct crosses, acknowledges that the connections made by farmers in Bolívar, Junín, Tosagua, Rocafuerte, Jaramijó, Montecristi and Manta are clandestine or irregular.
He explains that there are 10,000 farmers or families who seek regularization in order to be able to legally benefit from receiving raw water.
Mendoza indicated that since 2018 they have been proposing solutions to the cantonal and provincial authorities to regularize the consumption of water for irrigation; One of them was that the related municipalities join in a consortium, a figure that also involved the Refinery.
“Unfortunately that coincided with the political campaign of the Presidency of the Republic (of this year), and in any case the prefect (of Manabí, Leonardo Orlando), as he was in the middle of the campaign, and as the correists promoted that the Refinery was going to to be retaken, it was not convenient for them that this be regularized, because the issue would be left without a floor; then the prefect looked the other way, he never stopped us, “he said.
Given this, the leader indicated that the peasants raised the idea of making an economic contribution, which he classifies as “solidarity”, which some have already been doing since last October.
This amount depends on the irrigated hectares that are benefited. According to Mendoza, the Refinery would have offered them that in the second quarter of 2022 they would place meters in the places where they have captured water.
“Since October we have been making voluntary contributions every month, which will be a kind of loans, because after they already put meters on us and bill us for water use, everything we have contributed now will be discounted with the meter,” he said. Mendoza, who believes that they have already deposited about $ 20,000 in the Refinery accounts.
On December 15, this newspaper requested by telephone an interview with Wong, who asked to be called on December 20 to coordinate the date of the meeting. He did so on the appointed day, and he asked that the questions be sent to his email (which he did not provide, although he said he would) or to his contact via WhatsApp, which were forwarded on December 21. Until the closing of this note, there was no response from that official. (I)
Liquidation of the Refinery, with little progress
José Herrera, former liquidator of the Pacific Refinery, indicated that the settlement process of this company is at a critical stage. “Bogged down,” he describes it.
According to the former official, there are several problems: from the debt of about five months’ salary to the more than 20 employees that still remain in this company to legal actions for lawsuits of institutions that claim about $ 70 million in credits.
The former official indicates that the shareholders, Petroecuador and PDVSA, have not met to hear the examinations of the Comptroller’s Office.
On the subject of legal actions, Refinería in liquidation won two lawsuits in the first instance against the companies SK for $ 29 million and Warley Parson for $ 35 million, which are still being aired, according to Herrera.
Currently the largest creditor of Refinería del Pacífico is Petroecuador, with $ 995 million. (I)
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