Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 25 2022

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Later, the pipeline is due to be expanded to make
gas even more widely available and also, hope-
fully, to enable exports.
Agustín Gerez, the president of Energía
Argentina, stressed the pipeline’s potential at
a ceremony marking the finalisation of the
supply deal. “The signing of this contract is a
fundamental milestone for this transforma-
tive project, which will undoubtedly mark the
course of Argentina over the next 25 years and
direct us toward energy sovereignty,” he said. He
also stressed that his company had worked hard
to wrap up the deal quickly so that the pipeline
could be built and launched on schedule.
Gerez also emphasised the economic bene-
fits that the pipeline would bring to the country.
“The President Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline
is going to make it possible for the residential,
commercial and industrial sectors of our coun-
try to access energy, which has become a [costly]
input due to the international situation, at com-
petitive prices, thus boosting employment and Tenaris will supply pipes for the first stage of the new gas link (Image: Telam)
production,” he said.
The statement did not comment on the business leaders that there was “no corruption”
Argentinian government’s recent decision to involved.
investigate allegations of corruptions related to Nevertheless, Argentina’s government has
the tender in which Tenaris won the pipe supply said it wants to clarify the matter. On June 10,
contract. The Techint subsidiary was the only Kulfas was summoned to court to clarify his
party to make an offer for the deal, and former statements about corruption. The minister
Production Minister Matias Kulfas claimed responded to questions by soft-pedalling his
earlier this month that the cost of the project earlier remarks and describing them as a prod-
was likely to run high because of the lack of uct of rivalries between different state agencies.
competition. Shortly thereafter, he was dismissed from his
IEASA has insisted that Tenaris’ position as post, and IEASA said it was going ahead with a
the lone bidder in the tender did not constitute second tender for the pipe supply contract.
evidence of wrongdoing. The company’s CEO It was not immediately clear whether that
Paolo Rocca recently assured a group of local second tender had actually been called. ™

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s oil output sinks ahead of strike

ECUADOR’S Agency for the Regulation and
Control of Energy and Natural Resources (ARC)
reported on June 22 that the country’s crude oil
production levels had dropped by nearly half in
advance of a strike by members of indigenous
communities.
ARC noted that indigenous groups, led by
an umbrella organisation known as the Confed-
eration of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador
(CONAIE), were planning to stage a nationwide
work stoppage on June 23 and said this event
was already affecting the oil sector.
As of June 22, the agency said, crude out-
put was already down to 275,921 barrels per SOTE is Ecuador’s second-largest oil pipeline (Image: Government of Ecuador)
day, down by 45% on the figure of 499,005 bpd
recorded on June 12. ministry reported on June 22 that demonstra-
The decline is happening because protest- tors had taken control of at least 10 sites in the
ers have started to seize and vandalise oilfields, Napo Orellana, Pastaza and Sucumbios prov-
according to Ecuador’s Ministry of Energy. The inces of the Amazon region.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 25 23•June•2022