The construction company
BTU
, owned by
Carlos Mundin
, presented the cheapest offers for the first section of the
reversal of the Gasoducto Norte
, and
is the favorite
in economic terms to beat two heavyweights in the industry: the Transitional Union of Companies (UTE) formed by
Techint and SACDE, by Paolo Rocca and Damián Mindlin - Marcelo's brother - and Pumpco
, the company of the Mas brothers, owners of
Inter Miami
, where
Leo Messi
plays .
The reversal of the Northern Gas Pipeline is
the only mega public work that will remain standing this year
, in the midst of the fiscal adjustment and Javier Milei's chainsaw.
It has a total budgeted cost of 713 million dollars and is vital for the supply of gas and electricity to homes, businesses and industries in
Córdoba, Tucumán, La Rioja, Catamarca, Santiago del Estero, Salta and Jujuy
, which this year could be at serious risk.
Energy supply and imports
Due to the drop in its production,
as of August 1, Bolivia will stop delivering natural gas to Argentina under firm conditions (non-interruptible) after 17 years
, a contract was signed in 2006 by Néstor Kirchner and Evo Morales and began to come into force in January 2007. Without that fuel, the thermoelectric plants in the north of the country would not be able to generate energy, which is why this work is central.
Originally, the North reversion, with a capacity of
19 million m3 per day (MMm3/d) of gas transportation
, was planned to be ready in May of this year, although the times were extremely demanding.
The process of the 2023 elections and the economic disbandment of Argentina after the post-PASO devaluation buried that idea and now
the work could only be partially finished in August, and complete in June 2025
.
Since
the gas from Vaca Muerta - local work, taxes and royalties for the Nation and the provinces - will not arrive on time
, the options that the Ministry of Energy has in its portfolio are to resort to
gas imports through Chile
- which does not produce it, but rather buys Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and regasifies it in the Pacific Ocean - or make a
triangulation with Bolivia and Brazil
.
As Bolivia prioritizes its local supply and exports to Brazil before Argentina, the country governed by Lula Da Silva may be asked to release that quota and be supplied by LNG purchased by Enarsa but unloaded in San Pablo.
Furthermore, the deepening process of the economic crisis added another problem:
the compressor plants (PC) of the Presidente Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline (GPNK) of Vaca Muerta have not yet been completed
, which were going to add 10 MMm3/d of transportation capacity to the system. , additional to the 11 MMm3/d that the gas pipeline can already inject.
The PCs of
Trayén
, in charge of SACDE, and
Salliqueló
, of the construction company
Esuco
, have a construction progress of 65% and 40%, respectively, and the national Treasury is having strong delays in payments to continue with the work, as to the entire energy sector.
The plants should have been finished in the spring of last year.
Every day this winter that they are not operational,
Argentina loses savings in imports close to 10 million dollars
, industry sources estimate.
Reversion of the North, the last public work
Sections 2 and 3 (100 kilometers of pipelines) were previously awarded to Techint and SACDE, while the first section had to be re-tendered and was divided into two tenders.
This part of the tender was divided into "line 1", which consists of the construction of 22 kilometers of the Federal Integration gas pipeline between the towns of
Tío Pujio and La Carlota (in Córdoba)
, with 36-inch diameter pipes, while that "line 2" is made up of the laying of two
loops
(expansions) parallel to the 62 km long Northern Gas Pipeline, with 30-inch diameter pipes.
The state company
Energía Argentina (Enarsa)
, client of the work, opened the economic offers this Wednesday, after accepting the technical offers of the three companies.
Last year, the American company Pumpco, allied with
Víctor Contreras
, had been disqualified, but the tender had to be declared void because the other proposals greatly exceeded the budget.
BTU presented the cheapest offers in both lines: $74,003 million and $83,541 million, respectively, for a total of
$157,544 million
, always plus the Value Added Tax (VAT).
The UTE of Rocca and Mindlin, meanwhile, valued their proposals at $86,768 million and $138,221 million, respectively, with a sum of $212,750 million (for a special discount if both lines are awarded) plus VAT.
And the construction company of Lionel Messi's bosses, for their part, calculated $88,291 million and $133,823 million, respectively, for a total of $222,115 million plus VAT.
According to industry sources, Pumpco once again had to "fight" to be technically admitted.
Next week, on Monday the 18th, the technical offers for the other tender will be opened, for the reversal of
compressor plants
in the province of Córdoba, Santiago del Estero and Salta, on the main gas pipeline laying of
Transportadora de Gas del Norte ( TGN)
.
This firm, which is also owned by Rocca and Eduardo Eurnekian
's General Fuel Company (CGC
), will soon receive a rate increase and is willing to accelerate work with that money to stop importing gas.
The reversal of the North has 75% financing from the
Development Bank of Latin America
(former Andean Development Corporation,
CAF
) for US$ 540 million and it was planned that the State would use a trust from the Wholesale Electricity Market Administration Company (
Cammesa
) for US$173 million, made up of funds from electricity exports during recent summers.
However, today Cammesa does not have that money, since it needed to use it to pay off debt with the generators.
S.N.