Peru aims to privatise Camisea gas field
The president of Peru on October 25 called on lawmakers to pass a measure that would allow for the nationalisation of the Camisea natural gas field.
“We urge congress to make a law for the statisation or the nationalisation of Camisea gas, to give it to all Peru,” president Pedro Castillo was quoted by the Bloomberg news service as saying.
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Former prime minister Guido Bellido, who resigned in early October at the request of the president, said in an interview published August 8 by the Reuters news service that the government was already looking for a new role in the natural gas sector.
"Our feeling is that strategic sectors need to be in the hands of the government," Bellido said. "In my opinion, natural gas is a strategic resource and needs to have government participation (as well) as new hydroelectric projects of large size."
That could be jarring for energy majors involved in Peruvian natural gas. The Camisea consortium, led by Argentina’s Pluspetrol, is the largest gas producer in the country. That gas is turned into LNG by another consortium, Peru LNG, which counts Royal Dutch Shell and others as its members.
Castillo on the campaign trail riled against private businesses for “plundering” Peru’s natural resources, from natural gas to gold and copper. He made similar overtures earlier this week.
Peru’s LNG plant includes one train, a marine terminal, two storage tanks and a supply pipeline. The $3.8bn investment in the project was the largest direct private foreign development in the country when completed in 2010.
Supply for the plant is sourced from Peru’s Camisea gas fields, in central Peru, and delivered via a 408-km, 1.3bn ft³/day pipeline.