The situation of Petroperu It’s critical. According to the president of the Council of Ministersthe Executive’s measures are not intended to sell the company, but rather to seek its efficiency and stop costing all Peruvians.
In the following exclusive interview for Peru21the premier provides details about the emergency decree for the patrimonial reorganization of Petroperú.
What is the current financial situation of Petroperú?
Petroperú was no longer enough. The Peruvian people could not continue maintaining a company with tax money because they had already accumulated a net loss of 481 million dollars (between January and October 2025) and had a debt with suppliers of 767 million dollars (in 2025).
Which means that those losses, those deficits, were not going to be able to be covered by absolutely inefficient management, by senior officials who earned fantasy salaries and granted themselves absolutely anti-technical benefits and privileges. This has been going on for decades.
How do you plan to remedy this with the asset reorganization that you propose in the recent emergency decree?
What has been decided in the Council of Ministers is to allow Proinversión to intervene with a technical criterion in Petroperú. Proinversión is made up of a group of technical experts in finance and the State economy. They, incorporating concepts from the private world, will determine what to do with the different productive units of Petroperú, not with political voluntarism, but with an absolutely technical criterion. That’s why we are not the ones making that decision.
There are some productive units that must be maintained and strengthened. Others that, being deficient, need private capital, allowing public-private management. And others, finally, that could be absolutely inefficient and, worse still, unnecessary for the company. In the future, these could be privatized or simply liquidated, without this affecting the legitimate rights of workers or breaking the payment chain.
So, doesn’t this asset reorganization imply the sale of Petroperú?
No, because it would be a disaster. At this moment the company accumulates so much loss that surely they could not buy it for two dollars.
In this reorganization I assume that some units will be good and others in bad condition?
None of them are good because, in principle, the management of the company has been disastrous. Imagine that, in current expenses, the expense of salaries is less than the expense of privileges for senior officials. That’s how poorly managed the company is. So it is urgent to restructure it. Reorganization means rethinking the functions of the business plan that a company must have and that is what Proinversión has to tell us.
There is an important fact that should be taken into account. It is not that the Government is making decisions based on the interests within the company, which is how it has often been done. This political voluntarism often ignores the technical complexities of the economy. That is why Proinversión is in charge of carrying out the absolutely impartial and technical evaluation so that through a detailed report it tells us what to do, what political decision to make and we are willing to assume that responsibility and leave for the next government the task of developing and continuing to implement a path begun.
What should we expect from this patrimonial reorganization?
The main thing is to save the interests of the workers, meet the debts, especially those of suppliers who are medium and small companies, many from the same place, many are Peruvian companies and thirdly, save the company.
The essential idea is to save Petroperú since it is necessary for a public company to be able to supervise and control and exercise to some extent the exploitation and wholesale distribution of oil. So, the State has to have an entity that definitively controls and supervises this business with the efficiency and logic of the private sector, but not necessarily of the size, scope or set of activities that Petroperú has today.
But it tells me that no productive unit operates well…
Yes, the management of the company is terrible. But there are some activities that the company carries out that must be maintained. Others are in doubt and there may definitely be some that should not be carried out by Petroperú, but by private parties. There may be a unit that requires private capital and then its management is mixed. And some that are essentially under state control, but the logic of their management must be basically private.
Furthermore, no senior official can earn exorbitant salaries, have Arab sheikh privileges without achieving positive results.
What are those privileges that exist among Petroperú officials?
I wouldn’t want to go into details, but I can say that they are of a different order. From credit cards, cars, more than 14 salaries that do not justify. In addition, retirement pensions practically on a live ID basis and endless nonsense that are incoherent, not only with the results of the company, but with the very reality that the country is experiencing. So, that couldn’t continue like this.
And it strikes us that there are people who at this moment are organizing to resist and defend Petroperú’s status quo.
Who would be behind maintaining Petroperú’s fiscal fraud?
The Ombudsman is trying to convene political parties from Congress to confront the Executive and protect the current situation of Petroperú’s senior officials. If true, it would be incoherent because the Ombudsman must defend the people. And the people cannot finance with their taxes every year financial rescues that never end up being useful, that are simple buckets of water to the sea. Peruvians’ money is thrown into a bottomless pit and that deeply damages the country’s economy.
So, being a defender of the people means defending the people, it does not mean defending a privileged bureaucratic caste that for many years has lived off a clearly loss-making company.
Have you made any request to Proinversión to maintain any particular Petroperú productive unit or units?
No. This government is aware that it would be very irresponsible for the cabinet to make decisions regarding which units should remain or what their design is. That decision must be assumed by technical support that Proinversión must give us. The emergency decree establishes transfers for personnel reduction, as well as to finance the work of Proinversión.
In addition to that, money will be given to Petroperú? I say this because Peru has obligations to fulfill
Petroperú’s immediate needs will be addressed, but we are not going to give money to officials who have acted negligently. There can no longer be one more dollar, one more sol for the Petroperú board to manage as they please. Of course, the payment chain and the labor rights of workers must be maintained and must be respected.
What is your final message on this policy?
The idea of restructuring Petroperú is or should be an objective that cuts across all political and ideological perspectives in Peru. Because if you are on the left and want an intervening State, Petroperú needs to be revived and needs to be truly strengthened and stop being an insolvent and poorly managed company.
And if you are on the right, Petroperú must incorporate criteria from the private world. That efficiency, that competitiveness, that austerity of executives has to be revealed to achieve positive results.
In other words, there is no room for any Peruvian, unless they have a subordinate interest, to oppose restructuring Petroperú, because we are not saying either privatize it or sell it or continue giving tax money to Petroperú. We have decided to do a sensible thing based on technical criteria.
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