Qatar Foundation y el Sol (Diario El Pais de España)

En temas económicos, el golfo Pérsico es la cuna del petróleo, del combustible casi regalado, de los caprichos millonarios y de las islas artificiales. Sí. Pero ahora empieza a ser también un destino para las renovables. En previsión del declive petrolero, y animados por sus fabulosas reservas de dinero, Catar, Arabia Saudí, Kuwait o Emiratos han lanzado una nueva carrera para liderar el desarrollo de la energía solar.

 Para llegar a Rabi Mohtar hay que atravesar la imponente Qatar Foundation. Decenas de edificios recién construidos en un campus con sucursales de prestigiosas universidades de EE UU y centros de investigación punteros en energía y biomedicina. La sede está a las afueras de Doha, la capital de Catar que alberga la cumbre del clima, y por las calles abundan los todoterrenos (Hummers incluidos) que levantan polvo de las obras. El aire acondicionado está a tope y por los pasillos abundan los estudiantes occidentales, la inmensa mayoría becados. Mohtar es el director ejecutivo del Instituto de Investigación de Energía y Medio Ambiente de Qatar (QEERI, en sus siglas en inglés), uno de los centros encargados de la I+D en renovables. “El potencial de energía solar en la región del Golfo es enorme. Estamos bendecidos con una alta radiación solar, y por eso la energía solar es una inversión natural a largo plazo, más allá del gas y del petróleo”, explica en una sala de la Universidad de Georgetown, cuya sede original está en Washington.

El QEERI fichó hace tres meses como jefe de investigación en energía solar a Diego Martínez, un ingeniero español que pasó 22 años —los últimos nueve como director— en la Plataforma Solar de Almería, delCiemat, el centro público español equivalente al QEERI.

Martínez explica la apuesta por las renovables de una zona extremadamente rica en recursos fósiles: "Esta gente es inteligente y sabe que en 20, 50 o 100 años los hidrocarburos se van a agotar e intentan diversificar. Es un ejercicio de previsión".

Catar anuncia una inversión de 15.000 millones en una megacentral solar

No es solo una apuesta a medio plazo. El agua que consume la región es desalada, requiere gran cantidad de combustibles fósiles (sea fuel o gas, según el país). Así que si consiguen desalar agua o refrigerar los enormes edificios con renovables, tendrán más gas y petróleo que exportar. "Uno de los proyectos pioneros en Catar, en colaboración con el Ciemat, es usar la termosolar para producir electricidad y usar el calor residual para producir agua desalada por destilación, lo que cerraría el ciclo del agua, la energía y la comida", señala Martínez. Quizá como muestra hacia el exterior de que iba en serio, Catar, el país con mayor emisión de CO2 por habitante del mundo, apostó fuerte por albergar la cumbre del clima y esta semana ha anunciado que invertirá hasta 20.000 millones de dólares (15.300 millones de euros) en una central fotovoltaica de 1.800 megavatios de potencia (casi como dos reactores nucleares). En julio pasado, anunció que Qatar Solar Technologiesinvertiría junto a dos socios 1.000 millones de dólares (765 millones de euros) en una fábrica de módulos de silicio fotovoltaico.

Los proyectos y las cifras son tan grandes como todo lo que se plantea en esta región, ya sean estadios de fútbol solo para el Mundial o rascacielos infinitos. Y no es solo Catar. Arabia Saudí dijo en mayo que invertirá 100.000 millones de dólares (76.500 millones de euros) para convertirse en el mayor centro de producción y distribución de paneles fotovoltaicos del mundo, y planea instalar 14.000 megavatios solares (la potencia de 14 reactores nucleares) hasta 2030.

Abu Dabi construye una ciudad enorme enteramente con renovables (Masdar), y en junio de 2009 consiguió —con petrodólares de por medio— llevarse la sede de la recién creada Agencia Internacional de Energías Renovables (Irena).

Fuente: IRENA.

El director general de esta institución, el keniano Adnan Z. Amin, explica en los pasillos de la cumbre del clima por qué tiene sentido esta inversión: "Son países que ya tienen los recursos humanos y las infraestructuras energéticas avanzadas. Para ellos es muy efectivo invertir en renovables. Hay un renacimiento de estas energías en el Golfo. No será de combustibles fósiles, sino de energía solar".

Los países de la región cuentan con recursos humanos e infraestructuras

Uno de los grandes motores de este auge es el intento de reducir el consumo interno de combustibles fósiles para aumentar la exportación. Eso explica también el interés de algunos de estos países por la energía nuclear. Cuanto menos gas y fuel consuman para producir electricidad más podrán exportar para los coches del exterior.

Los números son difíciles de hacer. En Catar, el litro de gasolina para los coches cuesta el equivalente a 20 céntimos de euro, pero, como explica Amin, "por cada litro de gasolina que usan en casa pierden cinco veces más por no exportarlo. Ven que su demanda interna crece muy rápido, y que si siguen subvencionándola en casa van a perder enormes cantidades de ingresos del exterior en exportaciones".

En Irena trabaja como director de Asesoramiento en Política otro español, Hugo Lucas, que llegó allí hace tres años procedente del IDAE (Ministerio de Industria). Lucas ha viajado por todo el Golfo hablando con los responsables de los países y ha notado el cambio en estos años: "Ven que los países que queman petróleo para producir electricidad están perdiendo dinero". Lucas destaca que todo va muy rápido porque "la curva de disminución de costes de la fotovoltaica es fortísima".

Los flujos de exportación de petróleo van a virar hacia Asia

Aún falta por ver cómo afectarán la arena del desierto y la humedad de la costa a los paneles fotovoltaicos y a los espejos de las enormes centrales termosolares. Probablemente, aumentará los costes de mantenimiento (al tener que limpiarlos con más frecuencia) y castigará más los equipos, algo que se puede compensar con la enorme radiación solar que recibe. Mohtar añade otro problema: la falta de agua. "En la termosolar, en España, Alemania o Estados Unidos, la refrigeración se hace con agua, y ese es un lujo que aquí no podemos permitirnos". Hay que buscar sistemas mediante aire.

Pero Martínez señala que los problemas de financiación para investigar son muy distintos de los de España. "En Almería tenía dinero para abrir la puerta del centro y pagar los sueldos. Pero si querías hacer proyectos tenías que ir a Bruselas. Aquí el dinero no es infinito pero está bastante mejor que en España".

Todo el sector mira al Golfo, y más con la moratoria decretada en España y las dificultades de financiación en Europa. La española Isofotón anunció en septiembre el desarrollo de proyectos fotovoltaicos en Arabia junto a una firma saudí. Teresa Ribera, exsecretaria de Estado de Cambio Climático y responsable de Nuevos Mercados de Isofotón, dice que, además de reducir el consumo interno de combustibles fósiles, los fondos soberanos "han llegado a la conclusión de que tienen 30, 40 o 50 años de petróleo y quieren colocar bien su dinero, sobre todo en el medio y largo plazo, y han decidido invertir en renovables para ver cuál es la baza ganadora".

Los fondos soberanos invierten en espera de ver qué baza es ganadora

Por eso estos países están detrás de muchas inversiones en renovables en Europa. En octubre de 2011, el rey Juan Carlos inauguró una innovadora central termosolar de torre en Sevilla. Lo hizo junto al jeque Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, príncipe heredero de Abu Dabi. La central es un proyecto conjunto de la española Sener y la emiratí Masdar.

El pasado septiembre, Marruecos anunció que su primera termosolar junto al Sáhara la construiría un consorcio liderado por la saudí Acwa Power, para el que trabajarían las españolas Acciona, Sener y Tsk. Fuentes del sector creen que ganó el concurso con una oferta tan baja que solo se explica por el interés geopolítico de Arabia por entrar en el mercado del Magreb (hasta entonces dominado por Abengoa).

Las perspectivas energéticas son ahora mismo especialmente cambiantes. Debido al auge del petróleo y gas no convencional, Estados Unidos será en 2020 el primer productor de crudo, según el último informe anual de la Agencia Internacional de la Energía, lo que tiene un impacto enorme en estos países y en sus flujos de exportación "que van a virar hacia Asia", según Ribera, lo que tendrá un enorme impacto en las relaciones internacionales.

Si todo esto es un lavado de cara verde, una forma de aparentar que se hace algo por la energía limpia mientras

se mantiene un modelo de despilfarro energético y de fomento del petróleo, es algo que aún tardará en verse. Amín, el responsable de la Agencia Internacional de Renovables, cree que no es el caso: "Sería greenwashing el anuncio de un evento concreto, como podría ser esta cumbre del clima. Pero lo que estamos viendo es una inversión muy sustancial y un uso de recursos humanos grande. No haces estás inversiones para lavar tu imagen. Para eso cuelgas un par de pósters, pero no inviertes miles de millones de dólares en proyectos y en innovación si luego no quieres hacer nada".

US Energy vs Opec Production (Scott Tong)

Study supports exporting U.S. natural gas

If you think of the world oil market as a big stack to be filled, North America is suddenly pouring in big amounts. It's because of new drilling technologies, like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

In just two years, North America has disrupted other world suppliers, says Jamie Webster at PFC Energy. He's in Vienna for the OPEC meeting.

"Because the United States and Canada has kind of filled up that stack," Webster says, "it has reduced the amount that OPEC needs to bring on. So that is why the boom in the United States is in fact already affecting OPEC."

The dynamic suggests less revenue for OPEC producers like Saudi Arabia. And yet, Saudi always matters. It's the world's key swing producer, to tighten or loosen supplies when needed, kind of what the Federal Reserve does with money.

"Saudi Arabia will still be, if I may say so, the central banker for the oil industry for many years to come," says former OPEC economist Fatih Birol, now with the International Energy Agency.

Birol thinks Middle East oil shipments to America will dwindle to zero within a few years. Which has raised a debate: how much should Washington care about the Mideast? Would the U.S. military still come to the defense of Kuwait, as it did in 1990?

Some in the not-so-much camp argue for a downsized Pentagon budget to reflect that. Others argue the U.S. remains the world's lone energy policeman, and will keep it that way.

"We are the only country in the world currently, like it or not, that can project power in the Middle East," says Ed Chow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "There is no substitute for the Middle East for oil. And there is no substitute for American military power to secure that supply of oil for the world economy.

If the U.S. is a winner in the new energy order, Russia may be a loser. Its natural gas stranglehold on the European market is threatened by new shale gas supplies popping up elsewhere.

And China? Its energy thirst makes it increasingly reliant on Mideast oil, and nervous about it.

"This is why China is building a navy that can roam further than its territory," says international oil analyst Robert McNally of the Rapidan Group. "They've been building alliances with countries along the way to the Middle East. And down the road will likely look to protect its supply lines, probably in the same way we have."

Still, the U.S. production stirring up all this talk has uncertainties: how safe is it to drill shale oil and gas? How will it be regulated, and exported? How quickly do wells decline?

Regardless, OPEC thinks the world's energy music is already changing, and is trying to dance along.

About the author

Scott Tong is a correspondent for Marketplace’s sustainability desk, with a focus on energy, environment, resources, climate, supply chain and the global economy.

US net oil exporter by 2030 (NY Times)

The United States will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading oilproducer by about 2017 and will become a net oil exporter by 2030, the International Energy Agency said Monday.

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A drilling rig near Kennedy, Tex. There are several components of the sudden shift in the world’s energy supply, but the prime mover is a resurgence of oil and gas production in the United States.

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Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Oil facilities in North Dakota. The International Energy Agency said the United States would be a net exporter of oil by 2030.

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That increased oil production, combined with new American policies to improve energy efficiency, means that the United States will become “all but self-sufficient” in meeting its energy needs in about two decades — a “dramatic reversal of the trend” in most developed countries, a new report released by the agency says.

“The foundations of the global energy systems are shifting,” Fatih Birol, chief economist at the Paris-based organization, which produces the annual World Energy Outlook, said in an interview before the release. The agency, which advises industrialized nations on energy issues, had previously predicted that Saudi Arabia would be the leading producer until 2035.

The report also predicted that global energy demand would grow between 35 and 46 percent from 2010 to 2035, depending on whether policies that have been proposed are put in place. Most of that growth will come from China, India and the Middle East, where the consuming class is growing rapidly. The consequences are “potentially far-reaching” for global energy markets and trade, the report said.

Dr. Birol noted, for example, that Middle Eastern oil once bound for the United States would probably be rerouted to China. American-mined coal, facing declining demand in its home market, is already heading to Europe and China instead.

There are several components of the sudden shift in the world’s energy supply, but the prime mover is a resurgence of oil and gas production in the United States, particularly the unlocking of new reserves of oil and gas found in shale rock. The widespread adoption of techniques like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling has made those reserves much more accessible, and in the case of natural gas, resulted in a vast glut that has sent prices plunging.

The report predicted that the United States would overtake Russia as the leading producer of natural gas in 2015.

The strong statements and specific predictions by the energy agency lend new weight to trends that have become increasingly apparent in the last year.

“This striking conclusion confirms a lot of recent projections,” said Michael A. Levi, senior fellow for energy and environment at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Formed in 1974 after the oil crisis by a group of oil-importing nations, including the United States, the International Energy Agency monitors and analyzes global energy trends to ensure a safe and sustainable supply.

Mr. Levi said that the agency’s report was generally “good news” for the United States because it highlighted the nation’s new sources of energy. But he cautioned that being self-sufficient did not mean that the country would be insulated from seesawing energy prices, since those oil prices are set by global markets.

“You may be somewhat less vulnerable to price shocks and the U.S. may be slightly more protected, but it doesn’t give you the energy independence some people claim,” he said.

Also, he noted, the agency’s projection of United States self-sufficiency assumed that the country would improve gas mileage in cars and energy efficiency in homes and appliances. “It’s supply and demand together that adds up to this striking conclusion,” Mr. Levi said.

Dr. Birol said the agency’s prediction of increasing American self-sufficiency was 55 percent a reflection of more oil production and 45 percent a reflection of improving energy efficiency in the United States, primarily from the Obama administration’s new fuel economy standards for cars. He added that even stronger policies to promote energy efficiency were needed in the United States and many other countries.

The report said that several other factors could also have a large impact on world energy markets over the next few years. These include the recovery of the Iraqi oil industry, which would lead to new supply, and the decision by some countries, notably Germany and Japan, to move away from nuclear energy after the Fukushima disaster.

The new energy sources will help the United States economy, Dr. Birol said, providing continued cheap energy relative to the rest of the world. The energy agency estimates that electricity prices will be about 50 percent cheaper in the United States than in Europe, largely because of a rise in the number of power plants fueled by cheap natural gas, which would help American industries and consumers.

But the message is more sobering for the planet, in terms of climate change. Although natural gas is frequently promoted for being relatively low in carbon emissions compared to oil or coal, the new global energy market could make it harder to prevent dangerous levels of warming.

The United States’ reduced reliance on coal will just mean that coal moves to other places, the report says. And the use of coal, now the dirtiest fuel, continues to rise elsewhere. China’s coal demand will peak around 2020 and then stay steady until 2035, the report predicted, and in 2025, India will overtake the United States as the world’s second-largest coal user.

The report warns that no more than one-third of the proved reserves of fossil fuels should be used by 2050 to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, as many scientists recommend.

Such restraint is unlikely without a binding international treaty by 2017 that requires countries to limit the growth of their emissions, Dr. Birol said. He added that pushing ahead with technologies that could capture and store carbon dioxide was also crucial.

“The report confirms that, given the current policies, we will blow past every safe target for emissions,” Mr. Levi said. “This should put to rest the idea that the boom in natural gas will save us from that.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 12, 2012

An earlier version of this article misstated the International Energy Agency’s prediction of American self-sufficiency in energy production. The agency said 55 percent of the improvement would come from more oil production and 45 percent from improvements in energy efficiency. It did not say that domestic oil production would rise 55 percent. Also, an earlier version of a photo caption with this article misidentified the equipment shown in use in an oil field in Greensburg, Kan. It is a pump jack, not an oil rig.

A version of this article appeared in print on November 13, 2012, on page B6 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Is Forecast to Be No. 1 Oil Producer.

Sweden to import 800,000 Tonnes of Waste (wired uk)

Sweden plans to import nearly 800,000 tonnes of waste each year to satisfy its waste-to-energy plants -- waste conscious Swedes have been recycling so efficiently, the country doesn't have enough of its own trash to burn. According to an environmental advisor, it could spell the beginning of a future where garbage actually becomes worth something.

"I would say maybe in the future, this waste will be valued even more so -- maybe you could sell your waste because there will be a shortage of resources within the world," said Catarina Ostlund, senior advisor for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. As it stands now, countries will actually pay Sweden for the service.

Sweden began incinerating its trash in the 40s and now, each year, it sends a paltry four percent of its waste to landfills. This has been made possible by the tightening of restrictions on waste disposal -- landfilling of organic waste was outlawed in 2005 -- and the fact that the incineration process has become a cleaner, greener alternative in recent years, with most harmful byproducts of the conversion destroyed.

Currently, 20 percent of Sweden's heat supply is produced by incinerating garbage -- that's 810,000 homes -- with the remaining energy providing 250,000 homes with electricity. To make up for the lack of litter generated by its diligent citizens (the country's plants can process two million tonnes of household waste), Sweden will mainly be importing trash from Norway. Not only will Norway be paying Sweden to destroy its waste, the only thing it will get back in return will be a pile of ash, rich with heavy metals and harmful dioxins that will need to be deposited in landfills. Despite this added burden, it is still the most economical way for Norway to dispose of its household waste.

Sweden is ahead of the curve when it comes to meeting the EU's 2020 sustainability directives, and well ahead of other nations when it comes to its waste-to-energy plan. According to a Eurostat report, municipal waste in Sweden was landfilled at a rate of seven kilograms per inhabitant in 2009 -- compare this to figures for the UK, a hefty 260kg per inhabitant. Conversely, Sweden incinerates 235kg of municipal waste per person, and the UK, just nine kilograms. Countries like Estonia, Greece, Romania and Turkey still do not operate any waste-to-energy plants, and could present future partnerships for Sweden.

Incineration has also become far greener since the 80s in Sweden, when limits on emissions were tightened. According to a report released by the country's waste management association, Avfall Sverige, since that time incineration emission levels have dropped by between 90 and 99 percent because of better waste sorting technologies.

Byproducts of incineration include ash and flue gases, which both contain harmful substances like dioxin. These are now largely cleaned out, however. Dust is passed through an electrostatic precipitator to give the particles a negative electric charge. These are then attracted to positively charged metal plates, shaken off, collected and taken to an ash silo. The gases are washed out with water that contains lime -- this reacts with the gases and removes them. This is done several times to remove different things -- first heavy metals, then acids, sulphur dioxide and the remainder. Finally, a catalytic convertor removes nitrous oxides by passing the remaining flue gases through a porous material and converting them to nitrogen. The idea is that mainly carbon dioxide and water are released and, under the terms with Norway, anything else will be deposited in landfills.

Panorama petrolero 2013 por Joseph Lazzaro

Will Crude Fall Substantially In 2013?

Posted on 21 October 2012 by Gary Truitt

Right now, the price of oil is high: $90 per barrel. And don’t let anyone fool you: crude is not cheap today, and is ridiculously high compared to its 150-year average price (1861-2011) of about $25 per barrel. The compelling questions for investors and consumers are: 1) why are oil prices high today? and 2) where are oil prices headed over the next year, and in the next five years? Regarding oil prices today, it’s not simply a supply and demand equation. If it was, oil would be selling for $50 or even $40 per barrel, not $90. Despite increased demand from emerging market economies, primarily China, there has not been a sustained disruption in oil’s supply anywhere in the world. In other words, in the globalization era that began in 1989, whenever a nation, be it the United States, Japan or Germany, sought oil, it has been able to buy it. With no shortages during that 30-year span, why then has the price of oil remained at such high levels? You guessed it: geopolitical risk. Ongoing civil unrest in the Middle East (Syria, Egypt) near major oil producing nations, has placed a “geopolitical risk premium” on the price of oil, adding roughly $10-15 per barrel to oil’s price.

Add the above to the possibility of supply disruptions in Venezuela and Nigeria, and U.S./E.U. sanctions imposed on oil producer Iran over its nuclear program, and the result is an oil price that has been bid-up substantially – far above where oil would be trading if solely supply and demand factors ruled the day.

Second – and this may surprise some consumers – oil is not just an energy form, it’s an alternative investment, particularly for institutional investors (hedge funds, investment funds, and other high-net-worth investors). Frustrated by this decade’s inadequate returns in the stock and bond markets, institutional investors (IIs) have bid-up the price of commodities, and one of their favorite commodities is: oil. Further, so long as IIs believe the likely rate of return from oil futures (and other commodities) is substantially greater than the rate of return from stocks, bonds, real estate etc., these investors will continue to pour money into oil futures – and the price of oil will remain well above where supply/factors would place it.

Any Good News On The Horizon?

So now you know two major reasons (geopolitical risk, oil as alternative investment) why oil prices are so high today. Given the above, is there any good news on the horizon for businesses and consumers who use oil? Indeed there is.

Natural gas, and in particular unconventional natural gas stemming from new hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” technology, has become a comparatively cheap, abundant source of energy in the United States, and major, new supply additions are also possible in Europe, Russia, and the Middle East.

In North America, natural gas closed Friday at $3.58 per million Btus (MMBtu) – which means it sold for the oil equivalent of $20.74 per barrel. In other words, natural gas costs about one-fourth of oil, for the same amount of energy delivered.

To be sure, those huge increases in natural gas’s supply are contingent on fracking technology deployed safely. In some areas, fracking has led to environmental damage and it is not appropriate for all, potential drilling areas, but if those approved fracking sites continue to produce at current rates in the United States, natural gas will continue to displace oil in factories, home heating, and displace coal (and other fuels) in electric power generation.

Natural gas is also making in-roads in transportation, in the fleet vehicle market (buses, garbage trucks, short-haul delivery trucks), or where vehicles return to the same site to re-fuel. (The long-haul, 18-wheeler truck and civilian car/SUV markets will have to await the build-out of the U.S. natural gas filling station network.)

In other words, natural gas will decrease U.S. oil consumption, and in the process take some pressure off global oil demand.

Second, as the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicated in its latest global oil outlook, just as it has with natural gas, fracking and other, new drilling technologies applied to shale and tight formations in North America is increasing oil production. The IEA confirms what President Barack Obama has stated on the campaign trail: oil production in the U.S. has increased 13.1 percent since 2008 to 5.658 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, with the IEA calling the new oil drilling techniques, “a game-changer in the making.”

In other words, new drilling techniques will continue to increase U.S. oil production, and will play a role in increasing international oil production, boosting global oil production by 9.3 million bpd to 102 million bpd by 2017, the IEA said. Meanwhile, global oil demand is expected to rise to 95.7 million bpd by 2017.

The net result? The world’s spare capacity or “safety cushion” for oil is expected to roughly double – to 5-7 million bpd in 2017 – a safety cushion size the world has not seen since before 2003.

Colombia: Hidroituango, a 171 km. de Medellín, tendrá una inversión total de US$5.508 millones, estará finalizado en 2021.

Empresas Públicas de Medellín inicia en los próximos días el proyecto hidroeléctrico más grande de sus 47 años de historia y uno de los más importantes del país. Tras una audiencia de seis horas realizada el pasado martes, en la que hubo señalamientos, llamados al orden y retiros del auditorio Himerio Pérez de EPM, la empresa antioqueña le adjudicó el contrato de las principales obras civiles del proyecto hidroeléctrico Ituango al Consorcio CCC Ituango, el mismo que construyó Porce III y que se preveía como posible ganador.

Para Juan E. Calle, gerente de EPM, el consorcio, conformado por las firmas Comercio Camargo Correa (Brasil), Conconcreto y Coninsa Ramón H. (Colombia), ganó el contrato porque cumplió con los tres principales requisitos: menor valor de la propuesta ($1,89 billones), cumplimiento en contratos anteriores y oferta de financiación en firme. “El 45% del consorcio está en firmas colombianas; este es el porcentaje más alto en proyectos de este tipo en la historia de EPM”, dijo Calle.

Ahora el reto de CCC Ituango es construir en seis años y tres meses un dique de 20 millones de metros cúbicos de roca y 225 metros de altura, entre otras obras. El proyecto, que tendrá una inversión total de US$5.508 millones, comenzará a operar en 2018 y estará finalizado en 2021. En ese momento, sus 2.400 megavatios, que equivaldrían al 16% de la capacidad de energía total de Colombia, duplicarán la capacidad de EPM.

Pese a que el gerente Calle dijo al final de la audiencia que el proceso de contratación finalizó sin traumatismos, lo cierto es que diversas voces mostraron en el transcurso de la audiencia su desacuerdo con lo que, según ellos, fue un proceso amañado. EPM respondió que las propuestas del Consorcio Pescadero Ituango y de la Unión Temporal AOCO fueron rechazadas porque se constató que no cumplían con el requisito de experiencia exigido en el pliego de condiciones, en el que dice, por ejemplo, que “no se aceptará experiencia que provenga (…) de sociedades que hayan recibido de otras sociedades aportes en especie”.

A pesar de que esta aclaración fue hecha siete días antes de la fecha de cierre para la presentación de las propuestas (21 de marzo de 2012), EPM aseguró que, de acuerdo con el pliego de condiciones, era posible modificar los términos hasta cinco días hábiles antes del plazo final. Sin embargo, AOCO puso una acción de tutela, argumentando violación a los derechos fundamentales al debido proceso y a la igualdad. El Juzgado 18 Civil Municipal de Medellín respondió que no encontró “vulneración argumentada por las empresas accionantes”.

Otro aspecto que enturbió parte del proceso fue la inquietud sobre si un miembro de la junta directiva de Coninsa Ramón H. era el representante legal de la empresa que diseñó el proyecto hidroeléctrico. En este punto, EPM afirmó que Jairo Hoyos, el aludido y representante legal de Integral, ya no hacía parte de Coninsa —según un certificado de 2011 de la Cámara de Comercio de Medellín— y que su empresa no hizo los diseños.

Pese a que Hoyos era miembro de las juntas directivas de las empresas que integraron el consorcio Generación Ituango, conformado por dos filiales de Integral —Solingral e Integral Ingeniería de Consulta—, EPM aseguró, basada en una respuesta de CCC Ituango, que Hoyos no intervino directamente en los diseños porque en ese período no ejerció funciones operativas, administrativas o de ejecución en Solingral y no actuó como miembro de junta de Integral Ingeniería.

Impacto, historia y polémica

La obra se construye a 171 kilómetros de Medellín, en tierras de los municipios de Briceño, Ituango y Toledo. A la fecha, el proyecto ha vinculado a 3.061 personas, de las cuales un porcentaje significativo corresponde a mano de obra no calificada y semicalificada de la zona. En su fase plena, generará cerca de 7.000 empleos directos y unos 20.000 indirectos. A junio de 2012 se habían invertido $2.310 millones en compras menores en los municipios, dinamizando así las economías regionales.

La visión de esta gran hidroeléctrica se concibió desde la década de los 60, pero EPM lo consideró por mucho tiempo un proyecto inviable. El proyecto Hidroituango, adscrito al Instituto para el Desarrollo de Antioquia (Idea), carecía de los recursos necesarios para la magnitud de la obra y cobró un inusitado protagonismo en 2008, cuando el entonces gobernador de Antioquia, Luis Alfredo Ramos, decidió que el Idea se hiciera a un paquete de acciones de socios minoritarios y sacara la megaobra por medio de subasta.

Empresas internacionales se interesaron en la ejecución y el regionalismo antioqueño se agitó, moviendo fichas para que EPM se hiciera a la materialización de la obra. Al final se logró que Ramos suscribiera un acuerdo entre EPM y el Idea para no subastar el proyecto. El Idea obtuvo la capitalización de Hidroituango y EPM se comprometió a construir y operar la hidroeléctrica.

La licitación, adjudicada por EPM en representación de EPM Ituango, incluye la compra de los equipos (turbinas, generadores y máquinas asociadas), el diseño, la fabricación, las pruebas, el transporte, la supervisión del montaje y la capacitación para el personal de EPM que lo operará.

El contrato que firmará la compañía brasileña, cuya sede es la ciudad de Sao Paulo, con EPM tendrá un costo de 225,5 millones de dólares y un plazo de ejecución de 127 meses, es decir, un poco más de 10 años y medio.

Al término de la audiencia pública en la que se reveló el nombre de la compañía ganadora, el gerente General de EPM, Juan Esteban Calle, indicó que Alstom Brasil Energía e Transporte ofrece garantía y confianza para cumplir este nuevo compromiso adquirido por EPM en la ejecución del proyecto Ituango, ya que tiene amplia experiencia en el suministro de equipamientos y servicios para la generación de energía eléctrica y servicios ferroviarios.

Energía brasileña, competitividad y Dilma Rouseff.

La presidenta brasileña, Dilma Rousseff, anunció la reducción de hasta un 28 por ciento de las tarifas de energía cobradas a la industria. La medida forma parte de una serie de iniciativas destinadas a dotar de mayor competitividad” a la economía y se ubican dentro de lo que llamó un “salto” en el modelo de desarrollo. Lo afirmó durante el mensaje alusivo al 7 de septiembre, Día de la Independencia, cuando subrayó que Brasil fue menos afectado que los países desarrollados por la crisis y en el cual retomó el discurso de aliento a las inversiones anunciado el mes pasado al lanzar la privatización de carreteras y vías férreas. Rousseff dijo que su gobierno va a implementar la más fuerte reducción de tarifas de energía eléctrica. “Los consumidores residenciales tendrán una reducción media del 16,2 por ciento y para el sector productivo va a llegar al 28 por ciento a partir del inicio de 2013”, precisó. “Nuestro exitoso modelo de desarrollo se apoyó en tres palabritas mágicas: estabilidad, crecimiento e inclusión. Y para tornar nuestro modelo más vigoroso y abrir un nuevo ciclo de desarrollo vamos a incorporar una nueva palabra: competitividad”, aseguró. “Como la mayoría de los países, tuvimos una reducción temporal del índice de crecimiento, pero tenemos condiciones para iniciar este nuevo y decisivo salto”, sostuvo. La presidenta ha manifestado su empeño en reanimar una economía que, según cálculos privados publicados esta semana, crecerá el 1,64 por ciento en 2012.

Brazil says offshore find holds high-grade oil

Preliminary drilling has confirmed that an offshore deposit discovered in March contains significant reserves of light crude, Brazilian state oil giant Petrobras said.

"New oil samples were collected at depth of up to 6,131 meters (19,000 feet)," according to a statement from Petrobras, which said the oil has a density of 31 degrees API.

The higher the degree on the 10-50 API scale, the less dense the oil and the more easily it can be refined into fuel.

The Carcara well has "an oil column of over 400 meters, showing reservoirs that are mostly continuous and connected," Petrobras said.

The well is located in the BM-S-8 block of the Santos basin, 230 kilometers (140 miles) off the coast of the southeastern state of Sao Paulo.

BM-S-8 lies within the pre-salt region, so-named because the tens of billions of barrels of reserves it is estimated to hold are located far beneath the ocean floor under a layer of salt as much as two kilometers (1.2 miles) thick.

Petrobras, with a 66 percent stake, is the operator of the BM-S-8 block, while Petrogal Brasil, a subsidiary of Portugal's Galp Energia, has 14 percent, and Brazilian firms Barra Energia do Brasil and Queiroz Galvao each hold 10 percent interests.

The pre-salt fields, which range across roughly 160,000 sq. kilometers (62,000 sq. miles), are estimated to hold between 50-80 billion barrels of crude and could potentially transform Brazil into a major crude exporter. EFE

Norte Energia Suspends Work on Brazil's Belo Monte Dam

SAO PAULO--Following a Brazilian court order to stop construction, the company building the controversial 11,200-megawatt Belo Monte dam said Thursday that it was suspending all work on the project.

Earlier this month, a federal court ruled that the government's authorization of the 26 billion Brazilian reais ($13 billion) dam was unconstitutional. The court threatened to fine Norte Energia, the company in charge of the project, BRL500,000 a day should it continue with construction of the dam on the Xingu River in Para state.

"Norte Energia communicates that, due to a court decision, it is suspending the execution of civil construction on the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam and all other activities directly related to it," the company said in a news release. Norte Energia "is taking all available measures to reverse the decision, with the objective of returning the suspended activities to normality in the shortest time possible."

Because heavy rains impede progress during the southern hemisphere's coming summer months, company executives have said the suspension this month could delay work on the dam by as much as a year, depending on when they are permitted to resume work. The dam is set to go online by 2015, at which point it would be the world's third-largest hydroelectric dam.

In a decision earlier this month, federal judges in Brasilia said the government didn't hold the constitutionally-required meetings with indigenous communities that are affected by the dam before granting permission to build it.

Federal prosecutors in Para have asked courts on numerous occasions to block the dam's construction, alleging that required measures meant to alleviate the impact of the dam haven't been taken. Despite occasional success by the prosecutors, the federal government had managed to overturn all previous injunctions.

Norte Energia is composed of government-controlled utility Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras (EBR, ELET6.BR), or Eletrobras. Other stakeholders include the pension funds of state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR, PETR3.BR) and government lender Caixa Economica, as well as the utilities Neoenergia (GNAN3B.SM) and Cemig (CIG, CMIG4.BR), and mining company Vale (VALE, VALE3.BR). Eletrobras is the biggest shareholder, with a 49.98% stake.

Last month, indigenous leaders held three company engineers captive, saying they would only be released after the company provided means for the natives' boats to circumvent the construction site, which is impeding free travel along the Xingu. The engineers were released after Brazil's national indigenous institute Funai helped work out an agreement.

Write to Paulo Winterstein at paulo.winterstein@dowjones.com

Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA : Belo Monte Dam Engineers Released by Brazil Tribal Leaders (Paulo Winterstein)

-Dam workers being held by indigenous groups released Friday morning

-Norte Energia says tribal leaders violated agreement made earlier this month

-Indigenous leaders say dam construction has impeded river access

(Adds Norte Energia comments beginning in third paragraph, and prosecutor comments in fifth and sixth paragraphs.)

By Paulo Winterstein

SAO PAULO--Indigenous leaders in Brazil released on Friday the last of the three engineers working on the controversial $13 billion Belo Monte dam in Brazil's north who had been held hostage since Tuesday, Brazil's national indigenous institute Funai said.

The engineers working for Norte Energia, a consortium of Brazilian companies and pension funds, had been held in a village close to where the 11,233-megawatt dam is being built on the Xingu River. One employee was released Thursday night, and the other two were released Friday morning and were on their way to the nearby city of Altamira, a spokesman for Funai said.

Norte Energia confirmed the release of all three workers, one of whom works directly for Norte Energia and two working for companies contracted by Norte Energia to provide services.

The engineers had been visiting tribal leaders Tuesday to explain measures the company was taking to address problems with navigating the Xingu River. According to Norte Energia, the system that allows boats to circumvent the construction site is set to begin operating in November.

Federal prosecutors in the state of Para, where the dam is being built, met with Funai and company and indigenous leaders on Friday, as part of the agreement by tribal leaders to release the dam employees.

The prosecutors, who said in a statement that progress on required measures to alleviate the dam's impact on the local tribes had "serious deficiencies," asked Funai and environmental agency Ibama to evaluate Norte Energia's plan for the system to circumvent the construction site.

Leaders of the Juruna and Arara tribes have said construction of the dam, which has been opposed by environmental and indigenous-rights groups, is preventing them from traveling freely along the Xingu. At the end of June, tribal leaders occupied the dam's construction site and made similar demands, accusing Norte Energia of failing to carry out mitigation measures which the company is required to implement as part of its license to build the dam.

In a Friday statement, Norte Energia said it reached an agreement earlier this month with those tribal leaders, when they agreed to leave the construction site, that laid out measures that would be taken to resolve the problem.

"Norte Energia repudiates this kidnapping because all the accords will be met that were agreed to at the July 10 meeting," the company said.

The dam would be the world's third biggest, after China's Three Gorges and Brazil's Itaipu dam, and environmentalists and indigenous rights activists see its construction as another step toward increased development of the Amazon Basin.

Unhappy with the company's efforts so far, the leaders Wednesday said the engineers wouldn't be allowed to leave their village until a more-adequate solution to freeing up river travel was provided by Norte Energia.

Norte Energia is composed of government-controlled utility Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras, or Eletrobras; the pension funds of state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro; government lender Caixa Economica; utilities Neoenergia and Cemig; and mining company Vale. Eletrobras is the biggest shareholder, with a 49.98% stake.

The company is required to invest about $1.6 billion in social programs such as building sanitation networks and relocating houses that occupy land to be flooded by the dam. In the past, the company has said that it will carry out those investments, but that the investments will be completed as dam construction progresses.

Maria Das GRacas Silva Foster - Petrobras CEO (Emerging Money)

There were high expectations for new Petrobras (PBR, quote) CEO Maria das Graças Foster. Five months later the market is still questioning if she can actually run the company. Is Foster really the Latin American ‘iron lady’?

Petrobras CEO Maria das Gracas Silva Foster

The fact is that from mid-February when Graças Foster took office until late June, PBR’s stock has declined almost 30%. However, experts — and the market — have no doubt her management is better than predecessor José Sergio Gabrielli.

According to Itaú analysts, market criticism about Foster is not about her, but what she can actually do. “While Petrobras managed by Foster and her team is definitely a better company”, they say, ”two factors remain: we cannot fight the numbers, and the controlling shareholders remain the same.” 

Experts are also worried about political interference in Petrobras’ operations, since it is a mixed economy company. However, in the past couple of weeks, a new precedent was set for PBR in Brazil. Against all odds, it was able to raise the wholesale price of gasoline by 7.83% and diesel by 3.94%. This increase represents a big victory for Foster. Moreover, this favors analysts’ view that she will improve its management by reducing political manipulation in its operations.

The market reacted timidly to the move since it was considered a small adjustment, but there was more to come. After the raise on Monday June 25, last Thursday PBR announced a second increase in fuel prices, this time sending the stock up.

Without these price rises the company would be unable to pay for its five-year investment plan of $237 billion, Foster has stated.

The move has solidified the belief that Foster can offset political influence and is able to handle the board. She went against Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega — also chairman of Petrobras’ board of directors — who led the call for no increase in fuel prices.

Neverthless, experts are aware it will take a while for PBR’s new administration to prove that it is able to execute the company’s largest investment plan ever without major hiccups. 

Chinese investments in Canada (Antoine Gara - The Street)

After failing to buy Californian driller Unocal for nearly $20 billion in 2005, CNOOC (CEO), the Chinese state-backed oil giant, has agreed to buy Canada's Nexen (NXY) for $15.1 billion in the largest-ever Chinese acquisition of a foreign energy company.

CNOOC's $27.50 per share offer for Calgary-based Nexen comes at an over-60% premium to the company's Friday close and signals that the existing Chinese buying wave in niche drillers -- as well as a web of oil and gas joint ventures in North America -- may yet morph into mega-sized M&A. The deal highlights China and its state-owned oil giants' hunger for new oil and gas exploration assets amid a projected increase in the country's energy consumption. State-backed drillers like CNOOC, PetroChina (PTR) and Sinopec (SHI) have been acquiring oil and gas assets around the world, gaining access to many promising deepwater and shale drilling basins.

The argument against outright acquisitions of domestic energy assets for national security reasons forced the Chinese oil giants to be quiet and persistent buyers of North American oil and gas assets, cutting investment deals with some of the biggest independent oil and gas companies in the US,Chesapeake Energy (CHK) and Devon Energy (DVN), across the Canadian oil sands -- one of the most-desired regions for investment and where Nexen has exposure -- and with niche drillers in Canada like Daylight Energy, which was acquired by Sinopec last year.

Even though Monday's landmark bid for Nexen will face Canadian regulatory review, Chinese energy acquisitions may remain a more relevant prospect in Canada, with joint ventures remaining the preferred way to gain access to US-based asset sellers like Chesapeake Energy.

"There are lot more deals in Canada, and they don't translate to our public markets," says Subash Chandra, an oil and gas analyst with Jefferies. He notes that outright Chinese M&A tends to be "bottled up" in Canada, with few large-scale transactions in the US.

According to Bloomberg data, Chinese oil giants are the second-largest acquirer of oil assets, behind US oil majors, cutting $35.6 billion of acquisitions last year. Notable Chinese deals include Sinopec's November acquisition of a 30% stake in Portuguese energy company Galp Energia's Brazilian subsidiary Petrogal Brasil, for over $5 billion, and a separate October acquisition of Daylight Energy, which holds 300,000 acres of shale oil and gas drilling assets, for $2.1 billion.

The interest in Canadian assets from Chinese state-run oil companies has been building. Last year, Petrochina signed a deal with Encana to buy assets in the Cutback region for $5 billion, a deal which would have been the largest-ever oil and gas acquisition in Canada by a Chinese company. That deal fell apart for undisclosed reasons.

CNOOC's bid for Nexen may still be worth watching for US investors and energy players. Benchmark analyst Mark Gilman said in November that Chinese M&A interest in North America is at least partially about acquiring the technological expertise required from complicated deepwater and shale drilling. The same could be said ofExxonMobil's (XOM) acquisition of XTO Energy, seen as not only an asset play but a shale drilling expertise and technology acquisition.

Gilman noted the key to deals will be the size of new shale finds and the emergence of new types of drilling methods like fracking. "You have to keep half an eye on the frequency on which new plays are emerging...In terms of shale, we are talking about a business that has emerged in the last two to three years and has exploded on the scene," said Gilman.

Sinopec's acquisition of a stake in Petrogal Brasil includes access to the Jupiter and Tupi offshore oil fields -- the largest oil finds in the western hemisphere since the 1970s. The push into what is known as the Brazilian pre-salt, adds to a legacy of Chinese oil ventures with established players in hard to drill areas.

More recently, Sinopec bought a 33% interest in five shale ventures owned by Devon Energy for $2.2 billion, giving it access and a drilling partner in prized shale assets like the Tuscaloosa Marine , Niobrara, Mississippian, Ohio Utica and the Michigan Basin shale formations.

The head of China's Sinopec was recently seated next to Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey 

McClendon at an NBA Finals game. Chesapeake Energy is looking to sell billions in shale assets as a way to meet a $10 billion-plus funding gap this year. There have been reports that the recent visit by Sinopec's CEO Fu Chengyu to Chesapeake's hometown of Oklahoma City was the prelude to an asset acquisition.

Estimates for the potential oil and gas trapped in Chinese domestic shale vary, but there are expectations that the Chinese energy companies will develop in the coming years a significant domestic shale drilling industry.

Unlike many Chinese acquisitions and joint ventures focused on assets in one drilling region or at least one country, Monday's acquisition of Nexen provides CNOOC access to oil and gas assets around the world, including in Canada, West African countries, and access to prized US-based Gulf of Mexico deepwater and continental shale drilling opportunities.

Cannacord Genuity analyst Phil Skolnick said the market is likely to see this as a positive indicator of the ability of Talisman Energy (TLM) to be acquired given it has a mixture of international assets (TLM's Asia assets in particular are potentially of interest). However, he noted that Talisman lacks the oil sands exposure of Nexen, which on its own makes Nexen a more attractive target. On Monday, Talisman announced that it was selling a 49% stake in its UK North Sea business to Sinopec for $1.5 billion.

Monday's deal could lead to a new round of regulatory hurdles for Chinese operators looking to gain control of US assets -- Nexen owns assets in the Gulf of Mexico -- after regulatory authorities and Congress blocked CNOOC's $18.5 billion bid for Unocal in 2005. There are those who believe the political resistance to outright acquisitions of North American assets by Chinese energy companies never made sense.

"The Unocal bid was derailed by negative press and myopic rhetoric by a few ignorant politicians," says Fadel Gheit an oil and gas analyst with Oppenheimer& Co., who notes that in the aftermath of the deal breakup, the country has remained a large investor in US energy assets. "CNOOC has invested in unconventional JVs with US independents, which benefit both and should increase our domestic production," adds Gheit. The analyst believes Chinese firms should be able to invest more freely in the US since oil is a global business.

Even if outright M&A may remain politically challenging in the US, Chinese players like CNOOC, Sinopec and PetroChina will continue to test the waters. "CNOOC is sitting on a pile of cash and has been aggressively seeking energy acquisitions for the last five years, reflecting China's hunger for energy and oil in particular, and I expect this trend to continue," says Gheit.

In November Bloomberg reported that Marathon Oil (MRO) was in talks to sell its Angolan offshore operations to Sinopec and other Asian buyers for $800 million. Reports also indicate that Marathon may look to sell 30% of a joint venture in its Gulf of Mexico deepwater assets for $1 billion to Asian buyers as part of the Houston -based company's announced plans of oil asset sales up to $3 billion.

If the deals were to go through, it wouldn't be Marathon's first sale to Chinese buyers. In 2009, state-backed oil companies Sinopec and CNOOC bought a 20% stake in a promising Angolan deepwater oil prospects from Marathon for $1.3 billion.

The political climate in Canada remains a wildcard for the Nexen deal. While Chinese state-run oil companies have had success in Canadian M&A in recent years, Canadian regulators blocked BHP Billiton's (BHP) $38.6 billion bid for Saskatchewan based fertilizer company Potash (POT) in 2010, a high-profile political end -- and M&A failure -- for what was slated to be a huge foreign acquisition of a Canadian company.

The key to the Nexen deal not suffering the same fate may be its far-flung assets.

"We don't expect there to be any regulatory issues as only 28% of Nexen's production is in Canada. Plus there is an agreement to retain NXY's management team and for CNOOC to establish Calgary as its North and Central American headquarters. CNOOC also plans to list on the Toronto Stock Exchange," writes Cannacord Genuity's Skolnick in a Monday note to clients.

A logical counter bidder would be Total, according to the analyst, however, "We don't expect Total, or really anyone else, to try to compete with China," the analyst wrote.

Read more: http://www.minyanville.com/sectors/energy/articles/thestreet-mro-chk-CEO-dvn-NXY/7/23/2012/id/42669#ixzz22FPDfPKO