Gas transporters and distributors began this Friday to cut off gas to industrial users and large businesses with interruptible contracts due to the lack of fluid that is registered in the system in a context of increased demand caused by low temperatures. Service stations that sell CNG had already begun to apply cuts last week and now the measure has been extended.
The controller of the National Gas Regulatory Entity (Enargas), Carlos Casares, had sent a note this Thursday to the main gas transporters and distributors in which he recognized that the system was in a “pre-emergency” state and requested that they move forward with cuts to interruptible users to guarantee supply to homes. “The aforementioned cuts must consider the supply to the minimum necessary to ensure the functioning of the national electrical system. It is a sine qua non condition for distribution providers to make use of this procedure that they have declared the State of Pre-Emergency,” adds the note signed by Casares.
The Ministry of Energy issued a statement this Friday in which it states that “necessary measures were put in place to ensure the supply of gas to priority users, within the framework of the anticipated presence of low temperatures, which have been lower than the predicted (and more typical of winter).” In addition to blaming the cold, the portfolio led by Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo assured that the crisis is a consequence of “(i) the vulnerability of the gas system derived from its insufficient infrastructure for decades due to lack of investment (which generates bottlenecks in the gas flow), according to Decree 55/23 of energy emergency (sic); (ii) the reduction of supply from Bolivia, based on agreements of the previous administration and (iii) added to an exceptionally high consumption of the priority demand (residential users) of natural gas (from 45 MM3/day to 70 MM3/day )”.
In short, for the government, the blame lies with the cold, which arrived earlier than expected, and with the previous government. However, in the private sector they agree in highlighting that the Ministry of Economy is responsible for what is happening, fundamentally for having delayed the transfer of the budget items necessary to be able to complete the compression plants of the Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline that would have allowed the capacity to be expanded. of gas transportation from Vaca Muerta from 11 to 22 million m3 per day for this winter. Due to delays in payments, it is estimated that theTrayén compressor plant would only be ready to operate in mid-June and those in Salliqueló and Mercedes still do not have a certain date of entry into operation.
In this context, Cammesa, the company in charge of dispatching energy to the system, was forced to put out an emergency tender on Monday for the purchase of 12 shipments of fuel oil and diesel to face the increase in consumption, which will require 500 million dollars more than expected in terms of energy imports. The first of these shipments could only arrive next Tuesday. In fact, the injection of LNG from the port of Escobar is at half its capacity because there is no cargo committed for these days.
The companies also note a worrying lack of coordination between Cammesa, Enargas and Enarsa. Enargas, for example, asked transporters to reduce shipments to Cammesa so that the company begins to burn liquid fuels and leaves a greater availability of natural gas, a reasonable request but one that could have been resolved directly between Enargas and Cammesa. Due to these short circuits, the specialist Juan José Carbajales commented on the social network Cammesa, Enargas, TGN/TGS and even YPF. All criminal activities, surely.”
