They ask gas distributors to renegotiate with producers

The National Gas Regulator (Enargas), on instruction of the Ministry of Energy of the Nation, called to amend the contracts in force last year between production companies and gas distributors to mitigate the gigantic increase in rates that would apply in October when they were maintained as established conditions. Thus, the state opted for the middle way between the extremes which meant further subsidizing costs or transferring everything to users.

According to reports, the president of Enargas, Mauricio Roitman, sent Monday a letter to distributors (Metrogas, Gas Fenosa, Camuzzi and others in the interior of the country) asking them to renegotiate the contracts that They signed with producers for supply as of this year or sign new ones before the change in macroeconomic conditions that spawned the devaluation. the supply contracts corresponded to a scenario in which the exchange rate was $ 20.55 for the period from April to October, but which collapsed with the exchange rate disbursed to the end of April.

The 2018 budget voted by Congress has established that the dollar is expected to average $ 19.30 this year. Thus, the change of context makes it necessary to renegotiate contracts, given the impossibility of transferring higher supply costs to end-users. Bearing in mind that the weighted average price of gas was initially expected to rise in October, from US $ 4.68 to US $ 5.26 per million BTU, and that the Market Expectations Survey (MER) organized by the Central Bank. shows that the exchange rate would be $ 29.50 at that time, the cost of wholesale gas would increase by 61%. Gas production accounts for about 60% of the residential bill without taxes; the other 40% is for transportation and distribution, which has to adjust its income based on the transfer of wholesale inflation of the half-year before the rate hike.

According to industry sources consulted by El Cronista, "it is not unusual" Enargas quotes companies to review these values, given the public hearings to be held in September, before a further rate hike . What is already excluded, it is that there will be no adjustment in dollars as expected. A leading industry executive summed up: "The demand has dropped and the supply has increased, so it's normal that they sit down to negotiate."

So, the Price trajectory that the former Energy Minister designed would be liquidated, Juan José Aranguren, and reached its climax in October 2019. Thanks to the good results of Vaca Muerta, a value of US $ 7.50 / MMBtu, local costs are expected to fall, even more in summer, when demand stabilizes and there will be a surplus to place Chile. Instead of US $ 6.38, residential gas could be paid below US $ 5 per million BTUs.