After that, he explained that “throughout 2022 one of the great damages that our economy suffered was the impact of the war on the import price of the ships that end up injecting gas into our energy matrix”.
On the other hand, he highlighted that “for 2023 the first big news is the development that is being carried out in ENARSA and the start-up of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline that will allow us, from its operation, energy and currency savings of more than US$ 1,700 millionbecause the supply to a large part of the center of the Province of Buenos Aires and the north center of Argentina will already be at the price established by the Gas Plan and not due to the need for additional energy imports”.
Currently, the Minister of Economy maintained that there is “a supply system concentrated in the months of May, June and July that somehow rrequire an additional effort to try to guarantee, in 100% of Argentina, that we do not have to stop our activity or industrial nor domiciliary supply”. “This is the last year that Argentina has to import that, with the infrastructure of the second section of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline, they will not be missing”.
“International prices suffer from volatility and we feel that a huge window of opportunity opened in Argentina in the month of February. ENARSA has tendered all the gas that we need to import in ships, taking advantage of a window of opportunities that existed in international prices on the decline“Masa remarked.
In this sense, he explained that an investment of USD 3,465 million was established in the national budget, at a value of USD 55 MMBtu, in imports. However, from the negotiations, the costs were reduced to US$ 1,313 million, generating a foreign currency outflow saving for Argentina of more than US$ 2,100 million and a tax saving of more than $500,000 million.
The Minister of Economy pointed out that these negotiations “lower the cost of energy generation in the winter months; lower energy supply costs for much of our industry; puts Argentina in an international tender with the participation of the largest global players in a process where we guarantee certainty for the industry for the purposes of supply, certainty for citizens for the purposes of prices and certainty for Argentine public accountsbecause the payment process will be in fixed and flat installments from the Central Bank”.
Source: Ambito
