The refusal of the left-wing congressmen to continue forward with the reorganization of Petroperu It will not be a barrier for the Executive to continue with these changes. Minister Denisse Miralles reported that they will continue and revealed that there was talk of good results for the company because the payment of debts was not met.
There are more than 10 projects that propose repealing DU 010-2025, will they reverse?
No, definitely not, because it is the only way out the company has. When we entered management, we realized that the situation was worse than we knew. The information in Petroperú regarding the financial situation was “positive” as the managers told us, and we realized that this is not the case. We have found little transparency in the company, also an interest in maintaining the status quo, and an expectation that the Ministry of Economy will transfer resources as it has been doing in the last three years. That situation was not sustainable and we have the firm conviction that the task is to reorganize, find the appropriate size of the company, make its production units efficient, so that it no longer depends on the resources
of the State.
There has been talk of privatization.
There has been talk that it is going to be sold, even when Trump entered Venezuela it was said that everything was planned with the company. Petroperú has a series of debts, not only with the bondholders, but with the suppliers, who are the ones who guarantee the operation of the company. No supplier had been paid since September, that’s why they showed a number, according to them (managers) in recovery, because they were not honoring their debts. And these debts do not remain static, they generate interest and generate problems.
additional.
This DU seeks to question her, as well as the Minister of Energy and Mines and there is even talk of a vacancy for President José Jerí.
I know that it is becoming a bit politicized, but this is not a political decision, it is a responsible decision and it is the only way. We are going to start a series of meetings. For Friday we are calling the unions to tell them what is not true in all of this. They say that the dismissal letters have already been written, which is totally false, but I am surprised that these types of announcements come out. They are already talking about a certain number of people who are going to be fired, but that does not exist, that evaluation is only going to be done. We are inviting congressmen to that meeting that I mentioned with unions. Obviously, we are also going to attend the commissions that call us.
But is it concrete that there will be layoffs?
What we are seeing, and I think it is clear, is that it is an oversized company for the work it does. When did Petroperú work best? Between 2016 and 2021. At that time, the number of people was not what it is now. I do not understand how decisions have been made in a company that when it began to lose, starting in 2022, they began to increase personnel. It’s not that we want to fire people or not, the issue is that what has to be done here is to make an objective decision, see what the necessary size of the company is and in that sense define if any measure has to be taken. What we are going to start is in the managerial and management body. Petroperú has 36 managements, so the adjustment will begin there. But any decision made after this evaluation will be in compliance with labor rights. We are being advised by the Ministry of Labor in this regard. If that position is no longer needed, well, it will be terminated within the framework of the corresponding labor regulations.
There was talk of the resignation of the general manager in charge, is that correct?
She (Rita López) presented her letter because she stated that she needed to have staff and managers she trusted as soon as possible. There are certain strictures in the company that have made it very difficult to change managers. In other words, they themselves have generated their regulations to always be left making the decisions, these bad decisions that have led us to this point (of crisis). So from the Ministry we have coordinated with Fonafe to update their regulations, which were actually quite old, and we have managed to give them that flexibility so that they can appoint managers. What she mentioned is that the managers were not giving her the information or were giving her certain problems. The guidelines are being given these days so that in the shortest possible time we can have changes in the management body and with this we would be maintaining the manager and the president, who have the confidence of the General Meeting of Shareholders.
The current manager has been questioned for her participation in the Talara Refinery, a project with cost overruns, but also for supposedly participating when State disbursements to Petroperú began in the Pedro Castillo era.
She is removed from the managerial position when President Castillo enters. He is a person who has made a career path. For the General Meeting of Shareholders and the President of the Board of Directors, it was quite complex to choose a manager because anyone who works at Petroperú will always have criticism because they have worked in this management or in this other management. To avoid that it was necessary to bring in a manager from outside, but the company is so specialized that we believed it was necessary that someone from within would be better to reorganize it. There are many interests in Petroperú, but we believe that it is committed to what we want.
These interests also come from politicians and congressmen.
We believe that we are in that space of generating dialogue, sitting with them, explaining to them and I think they will realize that it was the only possible way out (reorganization). Those who continue to raise this issue (the repeal of the DU in debate), the population itself is going to realize that they are simply using it as a political hobbyhorse, and not really going for the well-being of Peruvians.
How much has been disbursed in total from 2022 to 2025?
On the one hand, we have the transfers and on the other the payment of guarantees, but in effect they are all State expenses. And if you add S/17,800 million plus US$1,000 million, more or less we are talking about almost S/21,000 million that between 2022 and 2025, Peru has disbursed so that Petroperú can survive.
An Ipsos survey revealed that 60% think that Petroperú should be sold or liquidated. Are those options now?
When we took the initial information, the first way was to do nothing, let the company be liquidated because the level of debt that Petroperú has is around US$5,000 million, and with that, if they start two bankruptcy processes, it could be the case that we lose all the assets of the company and it begins to be liquidated, and we could not let that happen. The second path, privatization, was not viable either and we believe that we were not going to find a bidder interested in purchasing. The only way out that we had, and that we have taken, is the intermediate one, that of organizing Petroperú, reducing it a little, making it efficient, incorporating private capital that shares risks with the State, and recovering the operation of these important assets that the company has.
How will you pay the suppliers who demand your money?
When we entered, Petroperú had been managing some lines of credit, but the international and national banks said that it was not subject to credit under those conditions. The emergency decree has been taken in a very positive way, not only by creditors, but also by investors. When we gave the signal of the emergency decree, those who had denied the possibility of access to credit to Petroperú changed their minds, so we are managing a couple of lines of credit and in the following weeks we should have them enabled so that this resource is the one that pays the debts. There is a part of that money that has to go so that the company recovers its ability to generate resources. The creditors also told us that Perupetro is charging them for royalties, but that in their contract it says that they could pay in spices with crude oil, we are just coordinating that with Perupetro.
Are you going to change to the directory?
Two changes were made because they (those directors) told us that they would not continue if there was no more injection from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Now the president and members of the current board of directors are aligned because it is the only way out that the company has and it is the only way out that we Peruvians have if we do not want to lose our company.
“Sentences are not clear”
Why until now have they not gone to the Constitutional Court regarding the Executive’s spending initiatives?
A strategy is being worked on, which is not led by the Ministry of Economy, but by the premier (Ernesto Álvarez). Although the president of the TC (Luz Pacheco) has been super clear in her statements (in interviews she has spoken of the improper use of a sentence that allowed Congress’ spending initiative), in the sentences (of the TC) this is not so clear. Right now there are elements for the Constitutional Court to clarify that ruling a little more because the Constitution says something very clear, and that is that any permanent expense must have its permanent source of income identified in order to be created. There is a strategy of the premier in which we are also participating with information, just as the Ministry of Justice does.
But when will concrete actions be taken?
We have already had a meeting to see the progress and I estimate that by the end of the month we should have something clearer. What I want you to understand is that it is not an issue to generate confrontation with Congress. But it cannot be that you get the rule and then we look to see where we get the resource from. It should be the other way around, first you see what the resource capacity is with which
accounts.
Would you go to the TC this month?
I would wait for the premier’s announcement because he is leading this. We believe that the court already has the elements. We have asked if there is some room for clarification of the sentence, because there are some congressmen who say they clearly understand what the president of the TC says, but others who are not so clear.
Is it a strategy to put a stop to these initiatives?
The idea is to tell them “this works this way.” (What is intended is that the) congressmen, when they present bills in this line (that generate expenses), first identify the line of financing of that expense that they are generating and that goes through an opinion from the MEF to validate if there is budgetary capacity. These guidelines must be generated so that everything that is approved starting in March has that fiscal responsibility.
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