The new president of Petroperú, Alejandro Narvaeza radical left activist, gave his first press conference, blaming his predecessors for the critical situation of the oil company, amidst contradictions.
Narváez highlighted the liquidity problems faced by the state company. He maintained that his board found Petroperú with a loss of US$750 million and expects that, for this year, it will close with a projected loss of US$960 million. However, he assured that, during his administration, the oil company will not request money from the State.
“Petroperú is going through a difficult situation, there are the figures. A positive aspect is that the State has allowed the company’s debt to be capitalized. If we are going to continue asking for more money from the State, at least while I am here, I don’t think so,” Narváez asserted.
The official questioned one of his predecessors, who pointed out that the oil company was bankrupt. In that sense, he assured that the company has assets of US$2,460 million.
“When a company is bankrupt it means that the net worth is negative, that the loss exceeds the equity. That is called loss, real bankruptcy and there are salvations; However, it was not and never was with negative equity,” he said.
However, the fact that the oil company’s assets were never negative was due to the bailouts that the Government had to make so that Petroperú could have liquidity and meet its obligations. To date, according to Petroperú, from 2022 to date, the State has disbursed around S/18.3 billion, between capitalizations and loan guarantees, import tax exemption, among others.
Measures
On the other hand, Narváez detailed a set of measures that his management will take to reverse the oil company’s situation, which are mostly those recommended by Oliver Stark’s outgoing board of directors.
First of all, he mentioned that he will implement a commercial strategy to recover market share, with a high-performance commercial team.
He indicated that he will prioritize the sale of fuels to large consumers in the industrial sector and direct sales will be made to different market segments.
Secondly, he said that a cost reduction and resource optimization plan will be implemented, a close relationship with financial creditors will be sought, as well as new sources of financing will be explored. The latter was one of the recommendations of the consulting firm Arthur D. Little.
Also, all unproductive or non-strategic assets will be sold and an international company will be hired for the financial restructuring and governance of the company, among other measures.
What caught attention is that despite the situation that Petroperú is going through, he said that Petroperú’s vision is to develop a comprehensive energy security project for the country, for which the oil company is expected to dedicate itself to the exploration of oil wells.
Data
Petroperú’s problem is due to a political decision to involve the State in a project that exceeded its spending capacity.
The project began with the objective of modernizing the Talara Refinery, but ended with the construction of a new one for more than US$6,000 million.
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