Two months before winter, the limitations of connections to the gas network in Bariloche continue

A little over two months before the arrival of winter, limitations persist by the
gas distributor Camuzzi to add new users to the gas network. The decision was made known in July of last year and the argument was the lack of works committed in 2018 to expand the capacity of the Gasoducto Cordillerano Patagonico.

«We constantly ask Camuzzi and Enargás for information and the answer is that it is not known, that the restriction period continues and that there is no start date because they are political decisions,” said Patricia Carruqueo, president of the Civil Association of Registered Gas Operators of the Andean Zone.

He insisted on the need to have an estimated date: «Today one presents the procedure, but the end of the work is not reached, which is the last step to have the meter. So the process remains unfinished. We never stop working but people do not and will not have gas.

The work to strengthen the Cordillerano Gas Pipeline -which supplies 25 towns in Neuquén, Río Negro and Chubut- was announced in 2017 with the aim of overcoming the historical delays in that area and guaranteeing an increasing demand. This work contemplated two stages: the incorporation of pipe reinforcements in critical points of the system and, on the other hand, the compression plant in Alto Río Senguer and a new compression equipment in Gobernador Costa.

The pipeline was inaugurated in 2019. However, no progress was made with the two complementary works which, by the end of 2019, should be finished. For this reason, the feasibility of accessing the gas network was stopped again.

In October of last year, after a meeting with representatives of Enargas and Enarse in Buenos Aires, Mayor Gustavo Gennuso said that the goal was for the works to be completed by the beginning of this winter. On that occasion, the national authorities confirmed the tender and award of the two missing compression plants for the Gasoducto Cordillerano to function normally.

Camuzzi sources warned that they have no news regarding the installation of the compression plants. «The Principal is ENARSA (the Argentine state) and according to what they told us, the plants were built in a workshop in Santa Fe“, they indicated.

This newspaper tried to communicate with authorities from the Ministry of Energy, but until now no answers.