ANCAP, The Uruguayan state oil company faces a challenging year with projections of losses that could exceed 130 million dollarsaccording to information published by journalist Eduardo Preve. The company attributes these significant losses to the prolonged shutdown of the La Teja refinery, impacted by union action and unforeseen repairs, and to uncertainty in its lime business.
This closes a shaky five-year period for the state refiner, after the government of Tabaré Vázquez and the board of directors of that period gave the then brand new administration the numbers in green: At the end of 2019, profits of 39 million dollars were recorded, which confirmed 5 consecutive years of surplus.
A daily impact of thousands of dollars in losses
In the first half of 2024, the ANCAP Group had already reported a loss of 79 million dollarshighlighting the severe impact of the refinery shutdown. During that period, ANCAP stopped billing approximately $670,000 per day due to the cessation of complete operations for 297 days. Although the group’s non-monopoly businesses generated a profit of $24 million, it was not enough to offset the losses of the monopolistic sector, which reached 77 million dollars.
In the middle of the year, at the end of the second quarter, ANCAP had already reported losses of 48 million dollarsmainly due to the need to import fuel to meet domestic demand. The works in La Teja, started in September 2023, included the replacement of three distillation towers and the technological update of the cracking unit, a critical investment of 67 million dollars of the 79 million allocated to the remodeling.
This effort to modernize the refinery’s infrastructure is crucial to improve operational efficiency and reduce long-term costs, but they were one of the causes of the financial setback.
The situation could worsen if the auditor reviewing the 2024 accounts considers that the lime business has no future, given that ANCAP is about to lose its contract with Candiota at the end of this year. To reactivate this sector, it will be necessary to wait for a new federal law that allows contracts to be renewed or negotiated.
