On October 19 and 20, the virtual event Peru Energía 2020 - "Technology and Investment Scenarios of a Sustainable Industry" was held. It was the first digital version of the event which brought together local and foreign speakers.

From ARPEL participated the Executive Secretary, Miguel Moyano; the Director of Downstream, Irene Alfaro, and Tiphaine Le Moenner, Project Manager and responsible for the virtual platform Innovarpel.

On the afternoon of the first day, the WIN SPE international Panel on "Technology and innovation in the oil and gas industry" took place, in which Le Moenner spoke with Adriana Sola from PGS and Karyna Rodríguez from Searcher. The moderation was in charge of Denisse Aguilar from Schlumberger, a member company of ARPEL.

Le Moenner gave a quick overview of the priorities of oil and gas companies in the Region in terms of Digital Transformation, highlighting the notable acceleration of this, such as in the use of digital communication tools as a result of the COVID pandemic.

The panel was a good opportunity to present the different initiatives that the Association carries out to support Digital Transformation in the industry. First, the collaboration and innovation platform, Innovarpel (www.innovarpel.org), which provides a space for dialogue to all stakeholders involved in the development and implementation of solutions for the energy sector. Also the existence of the Industrial Cybersecurity Working Group, created in 2015, with awareness-raising actions, training and exchange of best practices. In 2021, ARPEL will continue to work hard on the topic of Digitization with the first edition of the “Skills Acquisition Program in Intelligent Technologies for Industry 4.0”, an 80-hour course, theoretical / practical in virtual mode.

Next, the panel "Function of the hydrocarbon sector in the energy transition process" was developed, with the participation of Alfaro for ARPEL, and Martín Rueda from Shell Peru & Ecuador; Carlos Barrientos of Petroperú, a member company of ARPEL; Lisa Viscidi from Inter-American Dialogue, and Beatriz de la Vega from EY Peru as moderator.

“The growing and indisputable need to combat climate change is mobilizing all of humanity to move towards a low-carbon economy. In Latin America and the Caribbean, in particular, the still unmet needs in terms of access to energy further accentuate this challenge, ” said Alfaro.

She added that "our energy matrix is comparatively less intense in greenhouse gas emissions, compared to other regions of the world, and that renewable energies represent between 24 and 27% of the energy supply, one of the highest proportions in the world. ”. "Despite this, oil and gas continue to be the main source of energy in the region, representing close to 70%," she said.

She stressed that with 55 years of life, over the last 20 years ARPEL has been dealing with the various challenges that climate change and -more recently- energy transitions represent for the oil and gas industry in the region.

“Our strategic objectives today aim to generate a common understanding about energy transitions between our companies; identify the opportunities and associated risks, provide support to our members in their adaptation to the new business scenario, and strengthen our position in the most relevant discussion forums, such as the one that brings us together today ”, she concluded.

At the end of the first day, the panel “Competitiveness of the hydrocarbon sector in the South American regional scenario” was held, with the participation of Moyano together with Francisco Lloreda from ACP; Gaspar Franco, former Commissioner of the CNH of Mexico; Pablo de la Flor from the National Society of Mining, Oil and Energy; Daniel Hokama from Perupetro, and Carlos Gonzales from Enerconsult as moderator.

“From a regional perspective, it is worth remembering that the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean rely heavily on revenues from their oil and gas resources as an important source of income. This means that States will fight to identify strategies that encourage exploration of new areas by providing the necessary incentives for operators to remain interested in oil and gas exploration while preparing their economies for a new energy matrix. ", said Moyano.

Moyano pointed out that “there are alternatives to the exploration of new areas that some countries in the Region are considering and that is the support for the development of mature fields, which are being depleted at a rate of 6% per year, increasing the recovery factors of 30 % up to 60% ”. And he added that "if governments and industry work together, they can achieve common goals, and that is what we do and promote at ARPEL."

Meanwhile, he expressed that “the governments and regulators of the Region have been taking a series of measures designed to mitigate the impact of the oil price recession on operators, and some of these measures also include attention to the sustainability of service providers to ensure the survival of a solid sector of the supply chain ”. "However, despite these promising government initiatives, a high proportion of companies operating in Latin America and the Caribbean believe that political or legal insecurity is the greatest threat to the recovery of the industry," he concluded.