Martin Bidegaray
08/14/2020 - 21:48
- Clarín.com
- Economy
- Economy
YPF will postpone the fuel increase scheduled for this weekend. The conflicts over the political cost to pay for this decision led the oil company to wait a few more days. In the company they believed that the data of the "record" loss - of $ 83,000 million in the last balance - could help to give an official green light for the decision.
In the Government they say that "the situation is being studied . " "We are analyzing the impact of potential price adjustments on the already deteriorated fuel sales, but also in a broader sense, due to the ramifications of our decisions on the economy as a whole," company executives explained to investors. The last fuel increase was in December 2019. Since then, accumulated inflation has exceeded 15%
No one who understands the oil dynamics denies the need for the increase and considers it "inevitable". But the government has yet to find a way to process the political cost of that decision. "It cannot be that a liter of gasoline is cheaper than a sachet of milk," they say . The Casa Rosada, the ministries (Economy and Productive Development) are in favor of the increase, as well as the different lines that coexist in YPF.
From the Casa Rosada they came out to stop the possibility of the increase being made these days. In the official coalition there are invoices for the political cost to be paid when this increase is announced, as Clarín said in its Sunday edition.
One of the people who participated in the energy definitions characterized the situation in this way. “The idea that Cristina (Fernández de Kircher, the vice president ) endorsed the increase was installed . And that cannot happen. Cristina can never be seen as someone who supports a price increase ”, detailed an official, on the internal dynamics of the ruling coalition.
Guillermo Nielsen , president of YPF, went on the radio to ask for an increase in the price of fuel. In that participation they carved sectors of Kirchnerism within YPF. Of those who are supposed to do nothing without asking their political boss.
In their explanation to investors, YPF executives admitted that most of their losses come from problems in fuel sales . “Our drop in fuel sales was higher than average, mainly due to lower volumes. The sale of fuels represented 60% of our income in the second quarter of 2019 and now it is 52% ”, they pointed out.
The profit of the refining business decreased by 90%. It was US $ 31 million in the same period of the previous year and in this quarter it reached US $ 3 million.
Asked about its refining margin, which sank like never before in the last quarter, YPF executives expressed that “it is related to the possibility of adjusting prices at the pump in the future. We need to keep refining margins at healthy levels, not only for an integrated company like us, but also for the health of the market in general. "
"We hope that these imbalances that we are seeing in the market these days will clear up and that margins will return to normal in the immediate future," they said.
"The freezing of the value of fuels had already been ordered in the previous government, with a couple of tweaks, but obviously it is a very significant delay. YPF is a large oil producer and its naphtha segment is very important. The company is finances with the sale of fuels, "explained Guillermo Nielsen on Wednesday of last week.
"In previous years it has happened that we had to import oil and gas, so it is a short and difficult blanket to optimize. We need above all that there is gasoline. There is something worse than expensive gasoline and that is that there is no gasoline. That is why I tell you that It is a delicate balance that the National Government is trying to make and from the sector we are helping, but very strong investments are needed to supply the domestic gas and oil market (...) ", painted the president of YPF in radio statements .
Domestic fuel prices "are significantly behind," according to consultant Daniel Gerold. "Performing calculations of import costs for gas Oil and gasoline, we estimate that domestic prices are 14.1% below the import price for diesel oil, and 15.3% behind for super gasoline," he describes.
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