COMPANIES CLAIM THE STATE FOR GAS/WEB PLAN DEBTS
The oil companies are waiting for the Government to start paying a debt that already reaches $30,000 million for the injection of gas to cover residential demand.
Last July, the Ministry of Economy stopped paying the remuneration that corresponds to producers -with YPF at the helm- and there are also liabilities since mid-2021, sources in the sector told Noticias Argentinas. Some companies are studying to propose that the government authorize them to use these credits to pay tax obligations with the AFIP.
The Ministry of Energy awarded in mid-December the volumes of gas that each oil company must inject between 2023 and 2028 under the new version of the Gas Plan, the scheme that the State has used for almost a decade to ensure the supply of gas for the market internal.
The initiative was well received in the industry: the companies proposed competitive prices that were below what some producers and analysts were projecting, according to industry sources.
The weak point of the contracting scheme, however, continues to be the extension of the terms in which the State pays the producers the monthly amount that corresponds to them for the injection of gas that households receive through the intermediary of the distributors.
The Ministry of Economy covers the difference between the price offered by each company in the Gas Plan tender and the value of the fluid that Enargas effectively transfers to the tariff schedules of residential users.
The regulation establishes that the Ministry of Energy must provisionally cover 75% the following month in which the producers inject the gas into the main gas pipeline network. Then, the final payment for the remaining 25% should be made after 75 days.
