Argentina and Uruguay advance in their energy integration

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – To deepen the energy cooperation between Argentina and Uruguay, the Secretary of Energy, Darío Martínez, held a meeting with the Minister of Industry, Energy, and Mining of Uruguay, Omar Paganini, and the Uruguayan Ambassador in our country, Carlos Enciso.

“We hope that this first meeting will begin an agenda of definitions that will allow us to integrate Argentina and Uruguay in energy matters,” said Martínez at the beginning of the working day.

Regarding the focus of the meeting, he explained that “As we have recently done with Chile, the intention is to open the doors to Uruguay with the different areas of each of our organizations so that we can work together, to see how to complement each other to achieve a synergy between the capabilities of our two nations”.

In a similar vein, Minister Paganini commented: “We came with a delegation from Uruguay to explore the possibility of advancing in the exchange and regional energy integration, both in electricity and fuels”.

The Minister contextualized the energy relationship within the regional framework and the complementary strengths; in this respect, he highlighted that “in electricity, Uruguay has a lot of renewable generation, it can export; Argentina has all the potential of gas development”. And he added: “The south is very integrated through different interconnections between Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil, so the idea of advancing in regional energy integration seems to us to be within reach”.

Ambassador Carlos Enciso, in turn, evaluated the exchange as “very positive” and considered it as the continuity of a work already started with the Argentine Energy Secretariat: “At the time we visited Secretary Darío Martínez, and there was the possibility of having a face-to-face meeting with our main hierarchies to talk about the binational agenda issues to work on the deepening of energy integration”.

The Secretary thanked “the presence of the main authorities of Uruguay to create an instance of dialogue in matters of energy cooperation and to be able to jointly assume the challenge of improving the quality of life of our peoples”.

Mr. Martínez and Mr. Paganini introduced those responsible for the administration of the different energy areas of both countries, both in the field of electricity generation and transmission and in hydrocarbons, and agreed on the work of the technical areas to advance in a common agenda that allows establishing cooperation mechanisms and strengthening the energy integration between Argentina and Uruguay.

Among the topics discussed were the status of the electrical interconnection, the exchange of energy, and the possibilities of selling gas through a firm or interruptible contracts between IEASA and ANCAP.

The Uruguayan delegation was composed of members of the Ministry of Industry, Energy, and Mining and the main authorities of the public companies involved in the hydrocarbons and electricity sectors: UTE (National Administration of Power Plants and Electric Transmissions) and ADME (Electricity Market Administration).