Nicolás Mindlin: Thank you, Bruno, for your question. Regarding CapEx, we have a very aggressive plan, but we are currently revising that aggressive plan given the, let’s say, financial crisis that we are living on CAMMESA, which is an important part of our revenues. Thankfully, CAMMESA today accounts for around 40%, 45% of our overall revenues, but the delays that we are suffering are forcing us to revise our CapEx plan. Basically, before this situation, our CapEx plan were around $700 million, $500 million on the E&P segment, basically half of it new wells, and the other half infrastructure, both for Rincon de Aranda and for Sierra Chata. On power generation, CapEx were around – we were expecting to spend around $200 million, around $130 million it’s the wind farm PEPE VI, which is already on track.
And I have already mentioned when we are expecting to be online, and that won’t be delayed. The other $70 million is regular maintenance of our power plant, and we are currently revising, what can be delayed and at what cost. So, we are currently revising those plans as well.
Raquel Cardasz: Thank you very much. The next three questions from Bruno are for the E&P segment. First one says, there were encouraging news from Sierra Chata supporting the increasing gas reserve. What is the production profile expected for the field?
Horacio Turri: Hello, everybody. Thank you for your question. We’ve been pretty successful in developing so far Sierra Chata field. And what we foresee in the future is a significant increase of the production that, will account approximately to 3.5 million cubic meters a day. We moved our early production facilities from Mangrullo to Sierra Chata, due to the productivity we found there. And therefore, that’s the total amount of gas we will be increasing in Sierra Chata from approximately 6 million a day to 9.5 million a day. That’s on an overall basis, considering our share and Exxon’s share.
Raquel Cardasz: Thank you, Horacio. Next question says, can you elaborate on your strategy to be more active in your development and production of unconventional oil blocks?
Horacio Turri: Yes, we’ve been pretty active, particularly in derisking and trying to understand better our new shale oil field, which is Rincon de Aranda. As you probably know, we already drilled and completed one well, Rincon de Aranda 2000, which had pretty good results. And now, we are currently testing Rincon de Aranda 2001 that, has as a target Organico Inferior. And we only have eight days of testing, so there’s not much to say about that, other than all the operations are developing normally. We expect to have results probably in 30 days from now.
Raquel Cardasz: Thank you. And last question, is the company interested to participate in LNG projects being discussed in Argentina? What can we expect Pampa’s roles to be on future LNG supply?
Gustavo Mariani: As you recall, we mentioned in previous calls, we were studying through our subsidiary TGS one rather small project. We call it a modular project that could begin with small size and replicate those modules. Although the studies have not finished yet, our impression is that the lack of scale is a problem, that this project will lack the necessary competitiveness. So, the energy export in natural gas is key for Argentina, is key for Pampa in the long-term. So, Pampa is definitely interested in participating in a big national project like the one that YPF is carry on with another partners that we hope to be invited in the future.
Raquel Cardasz: Thank you very much. Next question comes from Marina Mertens from Latin Securities. There has been some noise regarding payments from CAMMESA, including Transener’s recent release. Could you comment on what Pampa is experiencing regarding this issue, and how it might affect working capital needs?
Nicolás Mindlin: Yes, as mentioned, we are experiencing, again, delays on CAMMESA payments, and the lack of visibility of how this will evolve going forward is adding some uncertainty and stress. To explain the issue a little bit further, prior to February 1, and why February 1? Since February 1, there’s been an increase in what we call the seasonal price. The seasonal price, is the price that distribution companies charges. National distribution companies all around the country charges to the final users, final users being residential customers, commercial customers, or industries. And that seasonal price should cover the cost of the fuel for thermal power plants, the cost of generating electricity, and the cost of transmission.
As I was saying prior to February – in February 1, there was an increase in that price that will partially help solve the situation. Prior to February 1, the situation to give you a rough idea, and to give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem, the cost of a monthly transaction for CAMMESA was around $550 million. How those – that $550 million, it goes to pay for the fuel, basically natural gas, to power generation companies and to transmission companies. How those $550 million were collected by CAMMESA, around $200 million were collected from. Or should have been collected from distribution companies, around 40%. So, that is what was being covered by the final users. And the other 60% was the subsidy, around $350 million was the subsidy that the national government was injecting into CAMMESA.
From February 1 onwards, given the increase in the seasonal price that was announced, the money coming from distribution companies, went from $200 million to $350 million. And the subsidy that the national government needs, to inject into CAMMESA went down from $350 million to $200 million. So, figures reversed between distribution companies and national government. Now, two thirds of the money needed by CAMMESA should come from distribution companies, and one-third should come from the national government. Despite this being the situation starting on February 1, we will start seeing this situation beginning April or May because February transaction is collected, or is paid by CAMMESA to power generation companies, the transmission companies in April, May.
Until that moment, the situation was the previous one where the money needed monthly from the government was around $350 million per month. And the situation is that in 2024, the government didn’t transfer any money to CAMMESA in January, had only transferred to CAMMESA $140 million in February, and so far nothing in March. And we don’t have any visibility how this will evolve. So, this is the uncertainty that we are living, or that we are suffering ourselves and all the industry, both transmission companies, power generators. And natural gas producers, is the issue that the national government is sending to CAMMESA less money than what it should have, and on top of that, the behavior of the distribution companies. Distribution companies, because they have not received the price of their services adjusted by inflation, as they should have.
