Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 50 2022

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The Talara refinery is due to reopen this month after a three-year shutdown (Photo: Grupo Cobra)

Peru’s new president appoints head

of Talara refinery as energy minister

OSCAR Vera, a chemical engineer, has been yet to issue public pronouncements on the mat-
appointed to serve as Peru’s new energy and ter – or on other problems facing the NOC, such
mines minister following the ouster of President as the company’s failure to produce an audit of
Pedro Castillo earlier this month. its 2021 statement or on corruption allegations
Castillo was impeached and forced to step involving Castillo and Petroperu’s former chief,
down after announcing the dissolution of the Hugo Chavez Arevalo.
country’s legislature and reorganisation of the In the meantime, the Talara refinery also
courts. He has been replaced by Dina Boluarte, faces challenges, as it is due to reopen before the
who had previously served as vice president and end of December after a three-year shutdown.
minister of development and social inclusion. Petroperu has been carrying out an upgrade
Despite Boluarte’s high rank in the decidedly project at the facility and was not able to wrap up
left-leaning Castillo administration, her cabinet work as quickly as originally anticipated. (The
appointees have been mostly technocrats or project has been running far behind schedule,
centre-right in political orientation. Vera falls in as the NOC had previously said that it hoped to
line with this pattern, as his most recent position launch NRT in 2017.)
was as the manager of the Talara oil refinery, the Talara is Peru’s second-largest oil-processing
main downstream asset of the national oil com- plant. The refinery is located 1,185 km distant
pany (NOC) Petroperu. from Lima, the capital city, on the Pacific coast in
According to Argus Media, Vera’s appoint- the far northern part of the country. It still uses
ment to the Energy and Mines Ministry indi- equipment that was installed in the 1950s by
cates that the new Boluarte administration is the US International Petroleum Company. The
likely to continue providing support to Petrop- modernisation efforts involved the construction
eru, which is in a somewhat precarious financial of several new facilities, including a flexicoking
position. Castillo’s government had provided unit, the first of its kind in Latin America.
the company with a $1.5bn bailout in October Petroperu marked the completion of work
this year in order to help it weather a liquidity on the flexicoking facility and the rest of the
crisis that sparked concerns about possible fuel plant, now known as the New Talara Refinery
shortages. (NRT), in February of this year. As a result of the
Now it appears that the new president may upgrade, the facility’s capacity rose from 62,000
offer a similar level of assistance, though she has barrels per day to 95,000 bpd. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 14•December•2022