In Central America, it is projected that the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the business of retail sales of gasoline and oil products will be explained mainly by the expected drop in gasoline and diesel sales.
Tropigas, Tomza Gas, Zeta Gas and Unigas are being investigated in El Salvador, for allegedly having agreed prices or other conditions in sales in the industrial LPG bulk market.
From a statement issued by the Superintendency of Competition:
April 12, 2018In March the Superintendence of Competition (SC) started a sanctioning administrative process to investigate a possible cartel in the industrial market for liquefiedpetroleumgas(LPG) in bulk, among four distributors, who may have agreed on prices or other conditions on sales from January 2013. The companies being investigated are: Tropigas de El Salvador, S.A. de C.V.; Tomza Gas de El Salvador, S.A. de C.V.; Zeta Gas de El Salvador, S.A. de C.V.; and Unigas de El Salvador, S.A. de C.V.
The Sanchez Ceren administration is negotiating a contract with the Bolivian government for the purchase and sale of Liquefied Petroleum Gas in the medium term.
As part of the negotiations between governments the possibility is being considered of Yacimientos Petrolíferos de Bolivia (YPFB) "...
A recently released analysis of the fuel sector's regional distribution chain provides a comparison of the prices of gasoline, diesel, and LPG from 2002-2013.
By Mr. Raphael Vilagut-Vega:
Complete, detailed, timely and reliable statistics are essential for monitoring the energy situation in Central America which has not escaped from the energy crisis, both in terms of electricity and oil rates. This market study analyzes the behavior of prices from 2002 through to 2013 for consumer fuels in six Central American countries and compares the average of the first half of 2013 with different indicators for 60 countries in U.S. $/gallon. Sales Price U.S. $100.00 (U.S. dollars) or its equivalent in Euros at the current rate.
The Salvadoran Superintendence of Competition has fined the company $75 thousand for not giving complete information and not including VAT on the unit selling price of gas cylinders.
"... TROPIGAS committed an administrative offense defined in article 38 paragraph 6 of the Competition Act, having provided in an inexact manner the information required in the process of preliminary proceedings initiated in May 2011 in the gas market," reported Elsalvador.com article.
The company is conducting feasibility studies on the import and distribution of Liquefied Petroleum Gas in El Salvador and other Central American countries.
"It would be an important element if we managed to change the energy matrix of El Salvador," said José Luis Merino, Alba Petróleos advisor, who explained that the company (funded with capital from the municipality of El Salvador and the state of Venezuela) has had conversations with natural gas producing countries.
After the first tender was declared void, the Ministry of Economy will convene a new bidding process to hire the service of payments for propane gas subsidies.
The Management of Procurement and Contracts at the Institutional Economics Ministry (Minec), declared void the tender contest for the implementation of the new delivery mechanism of propane gas subsidies, after the only company to submit its bid did not meet the financial and technical requirements established.
Since 2008 a law has authorized its use, but a regulation laying down the technical and safety conditions for sale and for conversion of vehicles has been missing.
The Economy Ministry is working on the rules and expects that during the course of this semester to it will reveal the workshops and stations authorized to perform the conversion work, said Ricardo Salazar, Director of Mines and Hydrocarbons at the ministry.
The Superintendency of Competition in has sanctioned Total El Salvador with a fine of $69,314 for filing incomplete information in an investigation into the liquefied gas market.
A statement from the Superintendency of Competition (SC) reads:
The company Alba Petróleos is preparing to enter the Salvadoran propane market in December.
At the beginning of its operations, the company may cover only 3% of the domestic market which is currently served by four companies, Tropigas, Z-Gas, and Total Gas and Tomza.
An article in Elsalvador.com by Luz Estrella Rodríguez contains quotes by the vice president of Alba Petróleos: "The gas will be stocked by a company in Honduras and will be unloaded to the 5,000 barrel capacity tank that has already been built in its plant located in Puerto de Acajutla, Sonsonate , as well as to other locations that are available in the port of La Union and that Alba Petróleos plan to rent. "
The plant, capable of storing 350,000 barrels of fuel, will be inaugurated on May 19.
The plant built with an investment of $115 million, is owned by Alba Petroleum, a company formed by Salvadoran municipalities and the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
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