The Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM) announced that it is working on the reactivation of the Southwest natural gas distribution concession, which includes the regions of Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna, with the aim of connecting more users in 2023.
Since the start of the Camisea operation in 2004, the southern regions await the arrival of natural gas and, although in 2017, the Southwest concession was launched, the construction of natural gas networks and the connection of new users came to a standstill in 2020.
Currently, Petroperú is in charge of the operation of the concession, which has built 395.45 km of networks and serves 12,846 homes, of which 510 are located in Moquegua, 693 in Ilo, 9,186 in Arequipa and 2,457 in Tacna.
In order to increase these figures, MINEM drew up a Specific Investment Agreement, with the approval of Petroperú, which will allow the construction of 350 kilometers of distribution networks to begin this year and connect more than 22,000 users to natural gas.
In addition to connecting thousands of homes in Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna, the construction of networks will allow the conversion of 1,100 vehicles to CNG in each of these three regions and increase the widespread use of natural gas in Peru.
To date, MINEM has been meeting with the corresponding authorities and the Regional Governments, in order to achieve a direct and constant articulation that contributes to the acceleration of the development of projects.
Source: MINEM
