Last Wednesday the 15th, the general meeting of shareholders of Petroperú approved the appointment of engineer Mario Contreras Ibárcena as the new president of the company’s board of directors , as announced by La República.
Contreras Ibárcena , with extensive experience in the sector, replaces Eduardo Guevara in the position, according to a report from Petroperú to the Superintendency of the Stock Market (SMV).
According to what was expressed by President Pedro Castillo , within the plans for the state company in the present five-year period is its return to the upstream (exploration and production). It is in line with this task that the profile of the new president of Petroperú fits.
Over the years, Contreras Ibárcena has worked in the management of various deposits, including block X, block 8 and block 192. According to his CV, he is an extensive connoisseur of the Talara basin, a city that this semester will see the inauguration of the Talara Refinery Modernization Project (PMRT).
In the opinion of experts in the field, it is precisely the upstream activities that will allow Petroperú to access oil revenues and, with this, not only become vertically integrated after 25 years, but also have a significant flow to pay the PMRT.
tasks ahead
Continuing to honor the debt commitments made for the PMRT will be one of the central tasks of the company. The debt is made up of US$3 billion in bonds and just over US$1 billion of Spanish credit.
Regarding the upstream, the great challenge for Petroperú is to have a firm contract for block 192, first as the owner of the operation and then with its strategic partner (Altamesa). In this line, it is also in batch 64 and the Talara batches, which are about to expire.
Likewise, Petroperú is preparing to receive the order to develop natural gas networks in seven regions of the country, as announced by the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) . All of this with money from FISE and, therefore, it would not require the company’s own money or entail legal restrictions.
The data
Directory. Accompanying Contreras will be Rafael Zoeger , former president of Perupetro and a wide connoisseur of contract issues. The roster is completed by Juan Pari , Hugo Chávez and Carlos Palacios. Óscar Vera remains as director for the workers.