Paolo Rocca, on the gas pipeline: “There was neither corruption nor addressing of the specifications”
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The president of the Techint Group, Paolo Rocca, assured this Tuesday that the tender for the construction of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline to expand the connection between the Vaca Muerta field in Neuquén with the rest of the country, a work that he defined as “fundamental” , was made with “a technically indisputable document”, and which stressed that “there was no act of corruption, or address of the statement, or anything like that”.
In this sense, he reviewed the entire process through which the Government summoned multiple companies to carry out the work before the winter of 2023 and that only Tenaris -the subsidiary metallurgical company of Techint in Argentina- complied with the requirements established in the sheet.
“The gas pipeline is one of the fundamental works to develop the resources of Vaca Muerta after what has been done in the past, such as the Gas Plan, which was very important. The Government arrived a little late with the financing issue. He prepared a specification for the purchase of the tubes and a specification for the construction,” Rocca described before the consultation in a panel with other businessmen at a meeting for the 20 years of the Argentine Business Association (AEA).
“The gas pipeline is one of the fundamental works to develop the resources of Vaca Muerta after what has been done in the past, such as the Gas Plan, which was very important”
There he explained that “the specifications for the purchase of tubes is a technically indisputable specification”and I point out that “it foresees how the gas pipeline has to be”.
Likewise, he detailed the technical characteristics that had to be fulfilled, and assured that “they are the same as in all trunk gas pipelines.”
“In order to build the gas pipeline in a short time and arrive by the winter of 2023, the times to collect the offers and, later, connect this with the construction of the gas pipeline have been very short. (In the Government) they went out to look for all those who could offer the tubes, and neither the Chinese nor anyone else could come up with an offer consistent with the expected times.“said the businessman.
According to what he said, Tenaris came to comply with the requirements by forcing its supply chain from Brazil to Argentina.
In this sense, he pointed out that “the management of Ieasa (now Enarsa, the national public company in charge of awarding the work) came across a tender in which there was one bidder.”
“There is a common sense here that I think should prevail in order to move forward together. Having a gas pipeline or not having one in 2023 is a difference of US$2.5 or US$3 billion”
Thus, he stressed that “he could have decided to cancel the tender, forget about the gas pipeline for 2023 and do it later”, but remarked that “what he did, with common sense, was assign it to us”.
“There was no act of corruption, no direction of the statement, or anything like that,” said the businessman, who added: “Here there is a common sense that I think should prevail to move forward all together. Having a gas pipeline or not having one in 2023 is a difference of US$2,500 or US$3,000 million“that can save the country.
In turn, he admitted that “it may be that I do not sympathize with a part of the ideology” of the Government, but assured that he respects “a technical report when I recognize it as such and this is what has been done.”
“Common sense -he assured- was lost in the multiple cracks that we have everywhere and I think that today justice is intervening in the statement. It is very likely that we will end up paying US$28 for gas in the winter of 2023 instead of US$4“.
In this context, he lamented that “if things continue to be delayed, it will not be possible” to reach the goal proposed for the winter of 2023.
The work on the gas pipeline requires building 570 kilometers in a year, which, according to Rocca, implies producing 60 kilometers of tubes and installing them each month, which is equivalent to two kilometers of tube per day and the need for “a truck to leave every 5 minutes from the Lanús plant along the Riachuelo towpath and reach Neuquén”
“It is a complex task. Tenaris managed to do it, it was not easy for other competitors. This is the story of what happened,” said the businessman.
Finally, he ordered the different sectors of politics and society that “If we want to develop Vaca Muerta we have to consider it as a state policy”.
“You cannot put a multitude of cracks with people on one side and the other who confuse thickness with diameter, millimeters with inches. In the end, the development of the potential of oil, gas and going to the world and fulfilling our responsibility depends on that,” Rocca said.
