Government This Friday he began to ask companies to move forward with natural gas cuts to the industry for prevent blackouts or lack of electricity starting this weekend, as Clarín had anticipated.
This happens due to the polar cold that invaded the main consumption centers and that surprised the energy authorities, who – with Monday’s newspaper it can be said – programmed the supply poorly.
The “priority demand” (homes and businesses), to which the gas cannot be turned off, is using between 75 and 80 million of cubic meters (m3) per day, when in may habitually use 45 million. He Next Monday the 27th, priority demand would even reach 82.5 MMm3/d.
As confirmed by various sources in the sector, Since Thursday the cuts to “firm” contracts began (non-interruptible) industry textile, wood, ceramics, juices and plasticsamong other.
The lack of gas had begun to be noticed last week with the cuts to the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) service stations with interruptible contracts and others who pay cheaper for fuel but do not have their supply assured.
This Friday at noon different commercial directors of the distribution and transport companies were gathered to decide who they would “lower the lever”.
Industries have already been brought to the “technical minimum” with which it is possible to operate. And the Government is avoiding an interruption to gas exports, which would imply a loss of confidence with buyers in addition to being “not very useful”, according to official sources, since gas is not lacking in Neuquén but “downstream” (in the final sections).
On Wednesday afternoon, National Gas Regulatory Entity (Enargas) I had sent him one internal note to companies with instructions in case the system goes into “pre-emergency.”
Why is there no gas and when will it be solved?
If gas was not cut off to these users due to a lack of product and a drop in pressure in the gas pipelines, power outages would begin (thermoelectric plants use gas as an input). That is what the Government tries to avoid at all costs: scheduled cuts.
The emergency situation was motivated by a perfect storm: low temperatures unexpected by the authorities, an imprudent dispatch of energy in which during the last months the reduction of costs was prioritized to obtain a tax savings from subsidiesthe crisis in Brazil due to floods (which took eventual electrical imports out of the system) and the delay in public works.
By the way, the problem of lack of dollars was central to the matter. TheTrayén and Salliqueló compressor plants and the Presidente Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline (GPNK) of Vaca Muerta They should have been ready last yearbut they would just enter the system in June.
The delay was due to currency shortage to pay for inputs while the Import System of the Argentine Republic (SIRA). Each of those plants, which build Sacde and Esuco, they would add 5 million m3 per day. AND would avoid the cost of imports of liquid fuels for more than 500 million dollars.
Meanwhile, the Treasury stepped on payments for construction certificates. To Sacde, the construction company owned by the family of Damián and Marcelo Mindlin, They owe him US$30 million. To Esuco, another US$ 15 million.
According to the technicians, who prefer to speak in off the record, around 6 million m3 per day are missing of gas in the South and Center of the country.
The Cerri liquid treatment plant, of Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS) – with which it obtains million-dollar income not regulated by rates – had to reduce its consumption from 5 to 1.5 million m3 per day.
The energy authorities were waiting for Argentina to have sufficient energy supply: the GPNK already adds 11 MMm3/d of gas transportation capacity from Neuquén, but it could have 21 million m3 per day.
The difference could have been made up with the temporary hiring of a regasification ship in Bahía Blanca, as a backup for the system. Having it moored in the port of Ingeniero White would have cost less than 100 million dollars and avoided gas cuts and expensive purchases of diesel and fuel oil for electricity generation. Liquids cost more than $22 per million BTU; nationally produced gas, US$5; and imports of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), close to US$ 10.
On the other hand, Juan José Carbajalesdirector of the consulting firm Paspartú and former Undersecretary of Hydrocarbons, noted that The Ministry of Energy scheduled only two purchases of liquefied gas between May 14 and 23, despite the fact that ships can enter the port of Escobar every 3 days.
Furthermore, the newspaper Black river noted that the Embalse Nuclear Power Plant entered an “unscheduled shutdown” on Tuesday the 21st due to a loss of heavy water from the primary circuit.
