Argentina is one of the leading countries in the use of vehicular CNG, with a park of 1.51 million cars. However, Today the sector is going through a complex situation due to the combination of a series of factors. The greatest weight is The low difference that exists now between the price of super gasoline ($ 1,200 a liter) and gas ($ 620 the country’s average).
For the conversion to be justified, the gas – which today is 50% cheaper than the gasoline – has to be much cheaper, a difference of at least 60%. In this inertia, in the last 10 years, The conversions passed from about 15,000 per month to the current 4 or 5.
The problem of CNG It was the central axis of the Latin American Convention of Fuel Entrepreneurs (CLAEC), which started last Wednesday in Buenos Aires. There, delegations from 12 Latin American countries, business stations entrepreneurs, officials and representatives of the main oil companies addressed different issues, including the potential strategies to be followed to mitigate the CRF crisis.
Juan Manuel Rumin, vice president of Cesgar, the Chamber of Service Stations and Garages of Rosario, reviewed some of the reasons that derived in this “complex plateau” for which the sector is going through: “The changes in the form of gas hiring, the update of the rates, the little gap between the prices of the fuel (New cars leave and do not convert to gas) “.
“Everything was combined and was discouraged the use of CNG ”, Point out. And he gives an example: “While in the last 10 years, the light car park rose 40% in the country, Those of gas, fell 11% In the same period. “And in the last year, this situation that entrepreneurs try to reverse was deepened.
Today, there are 2,100 gas service stations and 1,500 conversion workshops. For users, it’s An investment (install the equipment) that demands about $ 1.5 million. That is, it must be justified, according to the amount of kilometers Do the car.
Among the proposals that were woven in the Convention, about how to enhance the market, were the possibility of “working to adapt the regulatory framework to the present”. This means that, for example, the stations stop paying expenses that had been supplying fuel for 20 years ago and that today, with the improvement in transport capacity, they could be removed, “Rumin explains.
“Another point, he adds, has to do with the mix of basins. Today, it is not necessary that such a high cost is paid if the gas comes from different basins. That must be adapted to the current reality,” he suggests. “Today, from the development of Vaca Muerta, the price of gas is much less than when it imported from Bolivia. Therefore, It is necessary that the market be sincere according to what happens in practice ”resume.
Another expectation that the service stations sector maintains is the treatment that the Senate gives to an initiative that seeks Reduce the GNC price gap between the interior and the AMBA, where values are significantly lower.
The project aims exempt from the gas transport tax by networks to the CNG category, since it could mean a rebound in the demand for the beneficiary provinces.