Firm shipments of gas from Argentina to Chile begin in the midst of hydroelectric tightening

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – This Friday, firm shipments from Argentina to Chile will begin. Although exchanges have been carried out in the last weeks, now the fuel authorized by the trans-Andean government will enter the country and cannot be interrupted.

The milestone is framed in the signing in April 2018 of an Additional Protocol to the Economic Complementation Agreement Nº16 that seeks to promote the free trade of natural Gas and electric energy between the nations.

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Thus, in October of that year, the green light was given to the resumption of gas imports from Argentina.

In this context, in November last year, the Argentine government launched the Gas.Ar Plan, an initiative that sets incentives to gas production, is contemplated to start making firm or non-interruptible exports from this year.

In this way, sales of 6 million cubic meters were authorized to be carried out from October 1 to April 2022.

When consulted from the National Electric Coordinator, the body that oversees the system, they pointed out that “the company Colbún has informed that it nominated GNA (Argentine Natural Gas), for an amount of 2 MMm3 between October and December 2021, and 1.7 MMm3 between January and April 2022”.

In the summer of 2019-2020, an average of 7.4 million m3 per day was exported, but less than half of that Gas would have been firmly contracted. Meanwhile, in summer 2020-2021, the average export was 1.3 million cubic meters per day, exceeding the 6 million cubic meters per day planned.

The trans-Andean initiative, which took place before Chile assumed a scenario of tightness in the electricity system due to the drought, comes when natural Gas has become more critical for local electricity generation. This is in addition to the relevance attributed to it for the energy transition.