Braskem-Idesa denied that there is corruption in the contract with Petróleos Mexicanos in the Etileno XXI project and that it has allowed it to buy ethane from the Mexican oil company at low cost. The consortium clarified that it was Pemex itself that proposed the terms and the CRE endorsed the prices. The company said it was willing to dialogue with the Government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Mexico City, August 17 (However) .– The terms of the ethane supply contract between Braskem-Idesa and Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) were proposed and approved by the Pemex Gas Board of Directors and the price of hydrocarbon was established by the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), so there is no illegal activity, said the company responsible for the project Ethylene XXI.
“The contract was approved by the Board of Directors of Pemex Gas, responsible at the time, and it was this Board that approved all the terms of the contract, the main clauses of which were previously proposed by Pemex for all the more than thirty international and national participants of the selection process, not only for Braskem-Idesa ”, highlighted the signature after the President Andrés Manuel López Obrador He suggested canceling the contract, considering it “leonine.”
“That contract has to be canceled, it is my opinion, because it is a ‘lion’ contract, it has to be reviewed,” said the President this Monday in his morning conference.
Braskem-Idesa denied that there is any advantage for the company and explained that the ethane supply contract is governed by a “take or pay” / “deliver or pay” model, typical of long-term supplies associated with infrastructure investments, as can be pipelines, petrochemical plants or thermoelectric plants.
“Braskem-Idesa was forced to buy a certain amount of ethane gas from Pemex and Pemex promised to supply it,” he said. “If either party fails to fulfill its part of the agreement in the agreed proportion, it should pay sums or penalties to the other.”
In other words, for Braskem-Idesa the contract scheme is “take or pay” (receive or pay) and for Pemex it is “deliver or pay” (delivery or pay).
The scheme of alleged corruption in Ethylene XXI to harm Pemex began in the six-year term of Felipe Calderon on November 6, 2009, when Braskem (a subsidiary of Odebrecht) and the Mexican Idesa (from the family of Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández – then Undersecretary of Government of the Ministry of the Interior -) won the auction promoted by Pemex Gas and Petroquímica Básica (PGPB ), currently Pemex Transformación Industrial (PTRI), for the supply of 66 thousand barrels per day of ethane that would be used as raw material in the petrochemical complex to be built in the Coatzacoalcos area, Veracruz.
On February 19, 2010, Pemex awarded the consortium an “Ethane Supply Contract” for a period of 20 years. Braskem-Idesa invested 5.2 billion dollars to design, finance, build, own and operate an ethylene plant and two or three polyethylene plants with the infrastructure of services and accesses.
The start of operations was agreed to no later than June 30, 2015, as well as one year of tests prior to its operation (June 30, 2014). But, observed the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF), it did not generate economic value or profitability for Pemex in 2016, since it began operating until March.
Already in the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto and under the direction of Emilio Lozoya Austin, to supply ethane to the Etileno XXI complex of Braskem-Idesa, Pemex formalized on December 13, 2012 a contract for the direct award of “Ethane Transportation Services ”By pipeline, which considered the construction of a 226-kilometer etan pipeline, for the connection between the gas processing centers of Ciudad Pemex, Nuevo Pemex, Cactus and the Ethylene XXI Complex, as well as the Cangrejera Petrochemical Complex to the Ethylene XXI Complex.
In July 2015, the Pemex Board of Directors authorized that the amount of the contract for the 20 years 6 months of its validity for transportation would go from 982 million dollars to 1,346 million dollars, with an annual rate of 65 million 746 thousand dollars for changes in pipe diameters, valves, installation of heaters and social problems that caused route changes.
PROPOSES TO CREATE TERMINAL
On this issue, Braskem-Idesa denied that preference in the price of ethane that it buys from Pemex and pointed out that it was the CRE itself that established it at the time:
“This price formula was approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission and is the same that was applied between Pemex subsidiaries and also to other private companies (for example, the price of Pemex TRI for PMV-Petroquímica Mexicana de Vinilos-private company, Braskem -Idesa or Pemex Etileno), and it was applied to those other clients for one year before Braskem-Idesa started operations, which can be verified in the reports of the Superior Audit of the Federation ”.
The company added that the “fines or penalties” that make up the contract (recoverable damages) are one more of those clauses and “are ordinary in any type of contract to quantify compensation to be paid in the event that a party does not comply with its obligations. lack of supply ”.
Braskem-Idesa assured that it works permanently with its supplier (Pemex) in the search for solutions to the insufficient production of ethane in Mexico, which it pointed out, “harms the entire petrochemical industry in the country.”
The firm said it was “willing to make investments to develop an ethane import terminal, which is the only solution for this situation.”
“We trust that any dialogue with the authority will take place within the framework of the rule of law and legality, an essential condition for investment confidence,” he reiterated.
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