The process for importing gas from Venezuela to Colombia would have started in November 2022 when the neighboring country authorized the Caracas-based company Prodata Energy to make shipments through a 224-kilometre inactive gas pipeline, which runs from the gas fields in the western region of Venezuela, towards the northeast of Colombia.
However, on Saturday, March 25, it became known that this process had stopped. This is because the Colombian firm Energy Plus SAS, Prodata Energy’s partner in the importation of gas, issued a statement in which the shareholders decided not to continue with the process.
The reason for canceling the process of a possible gas import was the announcement by the Venezuelan attorney general to charge Bernardo Arosio in the investigations that are being carried out in that country for corruption cases.
“Taking into account that Mr. Arosio is a shareholder of the company Prodata Energy CA, the shareholders of the company Integral Energy Plus SAS met this morning in an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting and agreed to dissolve and liquidate the company immediately”, read in the statement of the Colombian company.
And immediately afterwards they pointed out:
“Although it is true Bernardo Arosio does not have any participation in Integral Energy Plus SAS, his status as a partner in Prodata Energy CA, of which one of the shareholders of Integral Energy Plus SAS is a shareholder, makes it unfeasible to continue with the project that was coming. advancing for the importation of gas from Venezuela to Colombia”.
The case for which Bernardo Arosio is being investigated would be due to irregularities in the management of the company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDSVA). Preliminary information would indicate a framework in the purchase of crude oil. From Venezuela they have reported that those indicated “carried out oil operations parallel to those of PDVSA through the shipment of ships without complying with any regulations; likewise, they would have carried out money laundering with cryptocurrencies and purchases of luxury goods.”
In the statement to public opinion, Energy Plus SAS clarified that, to date, “no gas sale contract had been advanced nor had the aforementioned project been executed, since it was subject to the approval of the Office of Sanctions Coordination of the US. Department of State of the United States government, pursuant to the request filed in November 2022.”
It should be noted that once the authorization to the Venezuelan company to export the hydrocarbon, through the gas pipeline, to Colombia became known, Ambassador Armando Benedetti maintained that it would not be immediate, and “that the president denied that possibility and that for the moment would be a private initiative.”
Regarding the commercial agreement to import gas from the state, the ambassador in Caracas said, in an interview with El Tiempo, that for now it is not a possibility, because: “Petro said that he was not going to import gas and he said so blunt manner”.
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The agreement between Prodata Energy and Energy Plus SAS would have been signed in July 2022, in which it would have been established that the Venezuelan company would deliver 25 million cubic feet of gas per day through the Colombian distributor.
The pipeline, which has the capacity to transport 450 million cubic feet, has been inactive since 2015. It runs from Riohacha, in the department of La Guajira, to Bajo Grande, in Zulia state, in the far west of Venezuela. Pdvsa paid 335 million dollars for its construction. with Infobae