The fear that the Argentine northwest will not have enough gas that it demands in winter, added to the delay in gas pipeline works that prolong the dependence on Bolivian gas and the fact that the neighboring country wants to take advantage of the few months it has left as supplier from Argentina, led to an agreement with exorbitant prices.
Bolivia, which historically sold its gas at a price that was in the middle between the price of Neuquén gas and LNG, is now charging much more for it than the liquefied gas that is mostly imported from the United States.
While LNG is quoted between 10 and 13 dollars, Bolivian gas is being paid at 17.5 and it is expected that in August and September it could be around 20 dollars. “We are abusing a neighbor. It doesn’t seem right to me. We are taking advantage of the desperation of the Argentine government when tomorrow we are going to need gas from Argentina,” criticizes the former Minister of Energy of Bolivia, Álvaro Ríos Rocca, in dialogue with Forbes.
In turn, prices are well above what was planned by the Ministry of Energy in January of this year. In that month, the portfolio led by Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo, published a price forecast that ranged between 11 and 12 dollars for the first half of the year and dropped to 7.9 dollars for the following months.
According to sources from Enarsa, the firm in charge of negotiating the addendum to the gas contract with Bolivia, the prices are similar to those of 2022 when the concept of Supply Guarantee Premium was agreed. That is, the volumes above the firm flow offered by Bolivia, which had lower prices.
The difference is that, at that time, LNG was paid around 40 dollars and was even quoted higher. Consequently, the value of Bolivian gas simply followed the trend of international prices. Now, however, there is a reverse situation with falling values around the world.
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The point is that Argentina urgently needs this fluid to be able to supply the NOA until the completion of the reversal works on the northern gas pipeline. That is why the contract with Bolivia was extended until September, the month in which part of the reversal is expected to be completed.
At Enarsa they maintain that the agreement for 4 million cubic meters per day is “on request”, therefore, the country is not obliged to take it if, for example, demand is lower in a scenario of mild temperatures.
Regarding the delay in the work, the firm questions the actions of the previous government and disclaims all responsibility. “The works on the gas pipelines and compressor plants were not stopped at any time. Since we took over the administration we have continued working on their construction. It was necessary to reformulate the inconvenient way in which Line 1 of the Tender had been configured. That line, tendered by The previous administration opened its economic envelope 2 on October 25, 2023 and a price was found to be 70% higher than the official budget included in the specifications. From then on it remained without movement, the evaluation commission was not issued until the change of administration. , when the process was resumed,” they explain.
In fact, the Massa management had announced that the pipe would be operational between the months of April and May. However, the bidding process began very late and on top of that came across this incident of receiving offers with prices higher than the ceilings stipulated in the specifications, in a context of extreme economic and exchange uncertainty due to the presidential elections.
Hence, it was not legal to advance with that document and it was decided to wait until the elections were over to continue with a new tender. “Later, line 1 was re-tendered, reformulated, with abbreviated terms, preserving CAF financing, generating competition in the new tender, which was reflected in its prices,” they add from Enarsa.
