Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 35 2022

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The left-wing candidate’s methods are not new He stressed, however, that the privatisation pro-
and are already known to yield disappointing cess was likely to be “complex.” The government
results, he said. has not yet decided exactly how to execute the
“That strategy was already used in Brazil sale and is considering several different strate-
and failed,” he told the news agency. “It turned gies, including a share conversion that would
Petrobras into the most indebted oil producer reduce the state’s majority stake, he said.
in the world.” In the meantime, he added, Brasilia will con-
The energy minister’s boss – President Jair tinue with its current strategy, which includes
Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election but is lag- privatisation of most of Petrobras’ refineries.
ging behind Lula in public opinion polls – has (Lula has said he believes the country’s oil-pro-
said he favours selling off Petrobras. The NOC cessing plants should remain under the NOC’s
is majority state-owned but is constitutionally ownership.) ™
guaranteed independence from government
control in many areas, including business strat-
egy and domestic fuel pricing.
The latter has become a sore point for Bol-
sonaro, who has fired several Petrobras CEOs
for refusing to accommodate his requests to
reduce domestic petroleum product prices
below international levels. The president is eager
to avoid backlash from voters – and from truck-
ers, who have been among his most prominent
political supporters – over the economic impact
of rising fuel costs ahead of the election. How-
ever, his efforts to shift the blame to Petrobras
have had limited success, and he is now calling
for privatising the company in order to separate
it completely from the government.
Sachsida told Bloomberg that he expected
Bolsonaro to win the election – and, therefore, to Sachsida (L) has sided with Bolsonaro (R) on plans for
get his way with respect to the sale of the NOC. the privatisation of Petrobras (Photo: Twitter/@Asachsida)

PERU
Indecopi’s oil spill suit admitted to court

THE Peruvian government’s $4.5bn civil claim fishing communities within this 150-km stretch
against Repsol (Spain) and other parties for of the coast.
damages related to an oil spill that occurred on Repsol, for its part, has described the law-
January 15 at one of the company’s four moor- suit as “unfounded, inadmissible and incon-
ings at La Pampilla has been admitted to court gruous because it does not address the causes
and will now move forward. of the spill.” It has also chastised Lima for not
According to a Reuters report, the judge of acknowledging its work thus far in cleaning up
the court where the lawsuit was filed admitted the spill and its co-operation with the govern-
the case on August 23. This clears the way for the ment in setting up avenues for affected persons
country’s consumer protection agency, Instituto and businesses to secure relief. (Peru’s Envi-
Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia y de la ronment Ministry has frequently sparred with
Protección de la Propiedad Intelectual (Inde- Repsol over the size of the spill and the pace of
copi), to proceed with efforts to collect $4.5bn the cleanup.)
worth of compensation – $3bn for environmen- The oil spill in question occurred as the Mare
tal damage and $1.5bn for harm to residents of Doricum, an Italian-flagged Suezmax tanker,
the affected areas and consumers – from Repsol. unloaded a 1mn-barrel cargo of oil at La Pam-
Julián Fernando Palacín Gutiérrez, the exec- pilla for delivery to Repsol’s refinery in that city.
utive president of Indecopi, said in a statement The Spanish company gained control of the La
last week that his agency was keen to mitigate Pampilla refinery in 1996 in a privatisation sale.
the damages resulting from the spill. The inci- According to previous reports, Repsol is not
dent led to the contamination of 150 km of the only party named by Indecopi in the lawsuit.
Peru’s coastline, he noted. The agency has also sued the refinery, the Map-
Indecopi officials have claimed that envi- fre insurance company, the Transtotal Marine
ronmental damage resulting from the spill con- shipping agency and the tanker operator Fratelli
tinues to have negative effects on beaches and d’amico Armatori. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 35 31•August•2022