The Peruvian government also demands the Odebrecht-led consortium pay a $263m guarantee for failing to finance the project on time
The Peruvian government has canceled the concession contract for the Gasoducto Sur Peruano (GSP), after the developers missed the deadline to reach financial close.
“The project is not going ahead with the current partners because they have not been able to shown that they have the financing,” Energy and Mines Minister Gonzalo Tamayo said in an interview with local television station RPP. “They had to get the financing from the international banking community as proof of their ability to carry out the project.”
The investment promotion agency ProInversion will form a special committee to open a new tender process for a natural gas pipeline concession, the Energy and Mines Ministry said in a statement.
“We have been respectful of the deadlines and we have never considered extensions or removing the anti-corruption clause,” Tamayo said in the statement.
The government will demand the Odebrecht-led consortium pay a $263m guarantee for not fulfilling the contract, he said. Odebrecht owns 55% of the consortium, while Spain’s Enagas has 25% and the local firm Grana y Montero (GyM) holds 20%.
GyM, which acquired its stake in the consortium September 2015, 15 months after the government awarded the contract, said its share of the fine equals $52.5m. GyM previously said the government will have to invest more than $1bn to help build the pipeline and that a new bidding process could take three years Enagas and GyM have said they will recover their investments in three years.
Odebrecht, facing bribery charges at home and around Latin America, had tried to sell its stake in the consortium so lenders could provide some $4bn in long-term financing. The builder failed to come to terms with Sempra Energy in November last year but it was close to reaching a deal with Canada’s Brookfield just last month.
Five banks – BBVA, Intesa Sanpaolo, MUFG, Natixis and SMBC – supplied an 18-month $600m bridge loan in August 2014. The lenders could recover the loan from the proceeds from another government auction. The consortium can receive at least 72.3% of the concession’s net book value from the next bidding process, Enagas and GyM said.
Tamayo said Peru’s central and southern regions will have access to natural gas in less than two years. ProInversion will put priority on a $350m project to build a pipeline network in seven regions, Cusco, Puno, Ayacucho, Apurimac, Huancavelica, Junin and Ucayali.