25 October 2018

MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF ARPEL IN MEXICO AND ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN THE LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN GAS CONFERENCE

  • The third meeting of the Board of Directors of ARPEL in 2018 was held October 9 in Mexico City. The meeting was attended by the Chairman, Carlos Colo of YPF, Vice-Chairpersons Roberto Díaz of Pluspetrol, and Benito Piñeiro of ANCAP, Faustino A. Sources of Pemex, Marco Antonio Toledo of Petrobras, Luis Suárez of Petroperú, Javier Jiménez of Repsol, Bob Fryklund of IHS-Markit, Gladys Reyes of Spectrum, and the Executive Secretary of ARPEL, Izeusse Braga. Pilar Ramos of Recope and Albert Tasias of Tema were present as representatives of the Fiscal Commission.

    Some of the main topics addressed during the meeting were: progress made in the Business Plan for 2018, the Senior Management Training Program, the ARPEL Conference, and the Strategic Planning of the Association for the coming years.

    In addition, the Latin America & Caribbean Gas Conference, organized by the International Gas Union (IGU) with the support of ARPEL was held October 9-11 in Mexico City.

    The Conference, which is the branch of the World Gas Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, brought together senior industry executives, delegates from major financial institutions, as well as the Ministers and Secretaries of Energy of the region.

    "We believe this is an important event for the development of natural gas in our region in order to achieve a more secure and sustainable energy matrix," the Executive Secretary of ARPEL, Izeusse Braga, stated.

    The presentation entitled "Recommendations of the Advisory Board of LGC for the development of natural gas in the region” was held on October 10. This presentation was given by Izeusse Braga and Rodrigo Rosas Isunza, Gas Analyst of Wood Mackenzie.

    Braga said that global trends currently being observed for the energy and natural gas sector in general pose major challenges and opportunities for both companies and states.

    As noted by the Executive Secretary of ARPEL, these trends include the sustained growth in energy demand, the need to decarbonize the economy, the increasing incorporation of unconventional renewable energies to the electricity generation mix, among others.

    Braga emphasized that countries in the region face some common challenges, such as a high level of external economic dependence, dependence on the primary sector and lack of economic diversification in most countries in the region.

    As to the specific challenges of the energy sector, he highlighted the weak diversification in energy generation, limited interconnections and underdeveloped network infrastructure as well as subsidies to energy, among others.

    Finally, he referred to a series of recommendations on how to build confidence between the parties to develop the agreements required for energy integration, to develop the aspects of trade integration, working multilaterally in the harmonization of standards that enable considering energy investments on a regional basis, as well as to generate a block of LNG importers in order to optimize contract terms and take advantage of synergies.

    ARPEL and Wood Mackenzie drafted the document "2018 Technical Report on Gas for Latin America and the Caribbean" that addresses the challenges and opportunities in the supply of gas, development of infrastructure and how the regional market will develop in the short term.

    That same day in the afternoon, Pablo Ferragut, Project Manager of ARPEL, participated in the panel "Trends and opportunities in the supply and demand of natural gas in LAC” along with representatives from Wood Mackenzie, NERA Economic Consulting, United States Department of Energy, Naturgas and IHS-Markit.

    Meanwhile, Miguel Moyano, Upstream Director of ARPEL, acted as moderator of the panel "The road map for the development of the natural gas infrastructure," which included presentations by the Department of Energy of El Salvador, ENGIE, AMESPAC, and Fermaca.

    The experts stressed that "in order to maintain the rhythm of the anticipated supply and demand of natural gas and to ensure safe transportation and storage in the countries in the region, the development of new infrastructure capacity should be considered."

    They also shared their knowledge about the current state of development and prospects of infrastructure needs associated with the natural gas business in Latin America and the Caribbean and its implications on energy security and investment.

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