Businessmen
Paolo Rocca
and
Marcelo and Damián Mindlin
aspire to keep the only major
public work
that will not be cut this year: the
reversal of the Northern Gas Pipeline
, which will cost the national State close to
800 million dollars
.
Rocca and his team convinced President Javier Milei, to whom they gave strong support in the 2023 elections, that this work is
strategic
to
avoid a problem with the supply of gas and electricity in seven
northern provinces (Córdoba, La Rioja , Catamarca, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán, Salta and Jujuy) starting in August,
when Bolivia can no longer guarantee the supply
in a “firm” (non-interruptible) manner.
That is why, despite the budget restriction and the strong fiscal adjustment underway, the Government will allocate resources to this end.
The owners of the construction companies
Techint Engineering and Construction and SACDE
formed a Transitory Business Union (UTE), as they did for the Presidente Néstor Kirchner Gasoducto (GPNK) of
Vaca Muerta
, which they managed to do in record time in 2023 and this year will allow a
substitution of energy imports
for about
2.5 billion dollars
.
The UTE has already been awarded
two of the three
possible sections (“lines”), the maximum allowed according to the original configuration of the tender.
But in the first line, the offers of all the competitors were above the budget and
the work had to be rebid,
so now the firms
can participate again.
Other construction companies interested in the business are
BTU
and the American
Pumpco
, owned by the
brothers José, Juan Carlos and Jorge Mas
.
These Cuban-Americans are the owners of
Inter Miami
, the club where
Leo Messi
plays , and are interested in landing in Argentina with million-dollar
investments
for the infrastructure of Vaca Muerta.
However, the previous management of
Energía Argentina
(
Enarsa
, commissionor of the work) disqualified Pumpco's technical offer and questioned that it functioned as a
subcontracting
of another company,
Víctor Contreras
, which - they say - could not comply with minor projects.
The re-bidding of that section, which was divided into two parts,
once again opens the door
to competition for everyone.
Strategic public works
The reversal of the direction in which natural gas flows in the Northern Gas Pipeline (today from North to South, to bring the fluid from Bolivia; and soon from South to North, to bring the gas from Vaca Muerta to the north of Argentina and, eventually, generate
exports to Brazil
) had an original budget of US$ 713 million.
The
Development Bank of Latin America (CAF)
granted a loan for US$540 million and the rest would be financed through a fund created in 2021 with
electrical energy exports
, run by the Wholesale Electricity Market Administration Company (Cammesa).
Lines 2 and 3, already awarded to Techint and SACDE, consist of 100 kilometers of the
Federal Integration Gasduct between Tío Pujio and La Carlota (in Córdoba)
, with a diameter of 36 inches, which will link the Central - West Gasduct with the North Gasduct.
Today both pipes join in San Jerónimo (Santa Fe), and the work will allow the flow of gas to be “accelerated.”
The Mindlin brothers are natives of La Carlota
, so they already own the largest infrastructure project in the history of their hometown.
The work is completed in the province of Córdoba with a
loop
(parallel laying) to the 62 km North Gasduct, the reversal of 4 compressor plants in Córdoba, Santiago del Estero and Salta, and the almost 23 remaining kilometers of the Tío Pujio – La gas pipeline. Charlotte.
This “line 1” has a budget of $137,000 million and offers will open between next Monday, February 26 and Monday, March 11.
Last week, the first pipes for the work
left the
Tenaris SIAT
plant in the Buenos Aires town of Valentín Alsina ,
heading to Córdoba.
These are batches of welded tubes with a diameter of 36 inches and 12 meters long, out of a total of 10,000, which are in the production process and will require approximately 2,500 truck trips.
NE