The Pacific regasification project is entangled

The The second call for the Regasificadora del Pacífico already has four addenda to increase the time for the presentation of proposals by investors. The most recent addendum was published on May 23 and it delays the reception of the technical and economic proposals by almost a month.

(See: The ‘buts’ that remain on the Regasificadora del Pacífico).

According to the document, now, the reception will take place on July 6, when in the third addendum it was scheduled for June 8.

This process, which fIt was declared void in 2021, has already had a series of extensions in its dates. According to sources in the sector, this is because there is little interest on the part of investors to develop the project.

Mónica Contreras, president of TGI, assured that they will not participate in the call since the regasificadora is not bankable. According to the directive, “the risk in the construction stage is being asked to be assumed by us” and for this reason it pointed out that as it is structured, the proposal is not viable to carry it out.

When consulting with other possible investors, they preferred not to refer to the subject, stating that they are under analysis to define their participation.

In accordance with the Energy Mining Planning Unit (Upme)the entity in charge of publishing the documents and selecting the investor, this infrastructure is required to ensure the reliability and energy sovereignty of the country.

(See: La Regasificadora del Pacífico extended its deadline to receive offers).

In factthe main reason to do it in the Pacific and not in the Caribbean, is that this area does not have a direct gas supply, Therefore, any problem in the infrastructure can leave the southwestern part of the country without supply. However, by having a regasification plant in Buenaventura, in the event of a difficulty, gas can be incorporated into the network from the plant.

Nevertheless, there are a number of disagreements in the sector on account of the extra costs that are associated with doing it in this region. For example, the construction of a gas pipeline that crosses conflictive areas is required, where prior consultations must be carried out, which could delay the construction of the project.

In the socialization of the project, the Up me sHe pointed out that there are some estimates of the impact of this work on natural gas rates for the areas of influence of the project. For example, in the southwest it would be 14.8% and for the area of ​​Caldas, Quindío and Risaralda 8.2%.

Now, one of the central issues of the discussion about the infrastructure is its high cost. According to some estimates this could be between US$700 and US$800 million; however, other estimates put the cost up to double, as shown in the graph.

(See: General aspects of the Regasificadora del Pacífico).

That is why one of the central discussions is how the remuneration is going to be made, once the construction is finished. ANDsta is one of the responsibilities of the Energy and Gas Regulation Commission (Creg)which must create the remuneration methodology as it is a reliability and energy security project.

This is why one of the most relevant definitions is who are the beneficiaries of the project, since with this it is established who must pay the cost of the work.
In this regard, the entity explained that “the information on the identification of the addressable demand of the beneficiaries will be published by Upme through the website”.

According to the investor documents, the work must be delivered 58 months after its assignment, that is, four years and 10 months. The objective is for the infrastructure to be ready to respond in a case of natural gas deficit, which is expected between 2026 and 2027.

However, with the first deserted call and the four addenda that the second process carriesthe implementation of this project seems to be further and further away from the need for which it was initially called.

(See: Call for regasificadora del Pacífico declared void).

PORTFOLIO