Polar Wave Sparks a Natural Gas Crisis in Argentina

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): Argentina is facing a natural gas scarcity crisis amid a polar wave hitting the country. The government declared a nationwide consumption ban on industries and compressed natural gas (CNG) stations. Meanwhile, some households across the country are facing gas cuts.

According to the government gas regulation agency Enargas, demand peaked at around 100 million cubic meters per day (Mm3/d)— a 25% increase compared to the same period last year.

A communiqué by the Economy Ministry said that the cause for the demand’s peak was the country registering the lowest temperatures “in more than 30 years and with lows as low as minus 11 degrees in some provinces.”

“It was an extreme situation — I pray God this doesn’t happen again,” said Mónica Jaureguy, 62, a housewife living in Villa La Angostura, a city in the southern Patagonia region where widespread gas cuts affected multiple neighborhoods, particularly in lower-income areas. On Monday and Tuesday — the day of the cuts — temperatures in the city ranged from -3°C to 8°C.

Jaureguy can heat her house with a fireplace, but said some of her neighbors do not have that option, some of whom have small children. She said she is also suffering from water cuts. “I went to check my water tank and the faucet had cracked due to the freezing weather,” she told the Herald.

Mar del Plata, a coastal city in the Buenos Aires province, is still experiencing a gas cut. Classes at schools and universities, as well as other activities, were suspended, as the city is enduring sub-zero temperatures.

The ban on industries and CNG stations, declared on Wednesday by an emergency committee, will last at least until Friday at 2 p.m. (local time).

“During this period, advantage is being taken of the decrease in residential demand to pressurize the system and recover the consumed linepack, a necessary condition to guarantee the stability of supply at every point in the country,” an official communiqué said.

The crisis committee will meet again on Friday morning to evaluate progress and, depending on the system’s pressure evaluation, the ban will be gradually lifted.

A source from Ecogas, a gas company supplying six provinces — Córdoba, La Rioja, Catamarca, Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis — told the Herald that residential supply remains unaffected in those areas, and that this is the first time such a drastic measure has been taken.

The source added that, apart from the peak demand, some gas producers are experiencing difficulties injecting gas into the system due to technical issues and force majeure declarations.

The gas supply is not interrupted automatically, but through the companies’ gas dispatch area, which communicates with large consumers and CNG stations. They send a notice to relevant chambers and often directly to individual large clients, mandating the cut. Clients then restrict their consumption, and the compliance level is monitored. Non-compliance results in fines.

Local authorities reported that the situation in Mar del Plata was also caused after the gas pressure in Camuzzi, the supplying company, decreased abruptly. In a communiqué, Camuzzi said that the service has already been restored in half of the affected homes, and that less than 1% of the area users are involved.

While some media reports blamed the cuts on the Milei’s administration decision to paralyze the majority of the country’s public works, a statement by the Economy Ministry said a two-decade “lack of continued investment” and frozen gas fees “prevented the development of the necessary infrastructure to respond to this type of critical situations.”

Courtesy: www.buenosairesherald.com