After the agreement expected to close in the next few hours with Bolivia and Brazil to import natural gas and guarantee supply on the coldest days, Government will try to take advantage of surplus gas in Vaca Muerta to export it to Chile in winter. These are interruptible contracts that run from May 1 to September 30 and can be suspended if necessary to supply domestic demand.

According to industry sources, the operators have already started talking to their Chilean counterparts. To close this type of contract, companies negotiate a price and quantity. And then the Secretary of Energy evaluates the internal supply demand daily. If they are covered, allow shipments. But if temperatures are very low and demand is higher than expected, they are suspended.

Firm contracts (non-interruptible), on the other hand, have a quota and are defined by a tender called Energy. These permits are valid in the summer, between October 1 and April 30, within the scheme provided by the Gas.AR Plan, launched in 2020. In December, Energy authorized a new round of these contracts for January-April 2022 for 4 million cubic meters, all reserved for Chile.

The possibility of export in the winter was discussed during the visit President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, to Buenos Aires. Your team requested this week to the Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, 200,000 cubic meters to supply your downtown area. A volume that authorities see as possible to meet in the winter, despite alerts being raised in official offices due to possible winter shortages.

The official calculation is that Chile’s order represents 2% of the average 10 million cubic meters per day exported in trans-Andean countries in these months. The other reason is difficulty in transportation inside gas from Vaca Muerta. If the agreement with Bolivia for 14 million cubic meters per day is closed in the winter, expect a saturation of the capacity to send gas to Buenos Aires from the field.

“This winter we can pledge interruptible contracts in Chile, using them generally when the weather permits and if the hydraulics have healed.but they also expressed the need for a volume that, being very small, could be assessed ”, they pointed out from Energy, where they recognized that, no matter how much production increases,“ it cannot be carried out until the first stage of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline has been completed “.

In the agreements signed in Chile, Guzmán agreed to resume exports without cuts from October and without a deadline. The bet is that they are valid throughout the year. There will also be growth in exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) under the same modality and the rehabilitation of the trans-Andean oil pipeline by the end of this year, after shipments were cut in 2006 when it expired. the Chevron contract.

Chile is a net importer of energy products with average purchases over the last decade of US $ 11.7 billion per year. Argentina will only represent 4% of its imports in 2021, but it can provide that market. In recent years, an average of 166 barrels of oil per day and US $ 14 million cubic meters of natural gas have been sold at a cost of US $ 4.9 billion per year, according to consultancy Economy and Energy.

Meanwhile, the Government must still ensure winter supply for residential and industrial needs, a situation that is causing tensions between Energy and the Economy. cammesathe state administrator of the wholesale electricity market, requires increasing the gas level to guarantee the thermal park due to the lower contribution of hydroelectric dams due to drought and scheduled shutdown of Atucha II.

In this unusual context, the share of gas in electricity generation rose to 65% in February, above levels in both the months of 2020 and 2021, and fuel purchases grew due to lower supply from Bolivia. This dependence on natural gas dropped slightly in May, as it was prioritized to meet residential demand, and fuel oil and gas oil were used to generate electricity, a fuel that was insufficient in now.