Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 32 2021

LatAmOil PERU LatAmOil

Peru’s new PM says government

should play a role in gas industry

GUIDO Bellino, the new prime minister of economy,” he declared. “It is false that we want
Peru, has confirmed that President Pedro to expropriate.”
Castillo intends to expand the government’s He went on to say that his government
involvement in the natural gas sector. wanted PetroPerú to compete with other com-
In an interview with Reuters on August 7, panies, including private-sector entities, even
Bellino said he believed that the state ought as it sought to regain control over some of the
to play a role in the country’s most important upstream assets that passed into the hands of
industries. “Our feeling is that strategic sectors foreign investors in the 1990s. Additionally, he
need to be in the hands of the government,” he stated that Lima would not finance the NOC’s
stated. operations with budget funds, since it was
Energy is one such sector, he told the news expecting PetroPerú to participate in fuel and
agency. “In my opinion, natural gas is a strategic energy markets and aim for profitability. ™
resource and needs to have government partici-
pation [as well] as new hydroelectric projects of
large size,” he said.
But he also stressed that the Castillo admin-
istration did not intend to nationalise the coun-
try’s lucrative copper-mining sector. He said that
private investors in this sector would be able to
retain control of their assets but did not reveal
whether the state intended to develop its own
capacity on this front.
The prime minister’s remarks are in line with
Castillo’s recent statements on the gas sector.
The president said during his inaugural address
on July 28 that he aimed to give PetroPerú, the
national oil company (NOC), the ability to act as
a vertically integrated organisation. He argued
that PetroPerú ought to be active in every sec-
tion of the value chain and to possess wellhead-
to-pump capabilities, as this shift would give
the government more control over retail fuel
prices and prevent monopolies from exploiting
consumers.
Castillo also said in his speech that efforts to
widen the scope of the NOC’s business would
not involve forced nationalisation of oil and
gas. “We do not propose to nationalise the Bellido describes natural gas as “a strategic resource” (Image: Perú Libre)

Week 32 12•August•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13