Copec takes star role in Ecuador’s fuel market opening

Market: LPG, Oil products
25/11/21

Chile's Copec is taking center stage in Ecuador's newly opened fuel market, building on its existing retail presence in LPG and motor fuels.

Duragas, the Ecuadorian subsidiary of Copec's LPG subsidiary Abastible, has signed a 15-year LPG supply and distribution contract with state-owned PetroEcuador. And Copec's regional fuels subsidiary Terpel is expected to sign a separate contract tomorrow with the Ecuadorean firm to import high-octane gasoline.

Under the directly negotiated LPG deal, Duragas will import, blend, transport, store and deliver LPG to industrial consumers in Ecuador. The agreement allows the company to use PetroEcuador's pipelines, storage tanks and other logistical infrastructure for the imports, which are expected to average 50,000-60,000 metric tons a year.

PetroEcuador chief executive Pablo Luna said Duragas will pay $34.09/t for the product at PetroEcuador's Monteverde terminal and $60.99/t at the Chorrillo terminal, values that were established by Ecuador's hydrocarbons regulator ARC.

Ecuador's industrial LPG demand represents only around 7pc of the country's total demand. The balance is mostly residential consumption, which PetroEuador supplies at heavily subsidized prices. Industrial LPG prices are market-based.

PetroEcuador will receive the propane and butane imported by Duragas, and will verify quality standards before releasing the product to the distributor.

At the 23 November signing ceremony, Duragas chief executive Jaime Solórzano said the LPG contract "shows the national government's commitment to working together with private-sector companies for the country's development."

The new contract will "ease fiscal costs, encourage free market competition and generate additional revenue from the use of public companies' installations," energy minister Juan Carlos Bermeo said.

Ecuador's former president Lenin Moreno formally opened the imported fuel market in September 2020 under decree 1158 that effectively ended PetroEcuador's monopoly. But Copec has become the first large actor to dive in.

Over the last two months, Ecuador has authorized six companies to import fuel, but Duragas is by far the largest one, and only one other firm has signed a contract with PetroEcuador to use its facilities. Duragas is the only one allowed to import LPG.

Open door

Bermeo said any company that wants to import motor fuel, LPG or LNG can do so freely without any tender process. The company only has to apply to ARC for authorization. If the importer wants to use PetroEcuador's installations, it would need to sign a fixed-fee contract with the company.

"We do not have to tender these kinds of contracts. It depends on the commercial interests of each company that wants to import fuel to Ecuador. We think they will try to import super gasoline (92-octane gasoline) or higher-quality gasoline because its price is not frozen or regulated," Bermeo told Argus, referring to the two-tier pricing of market-based and subsidized products.

Abastible is one of three main LPG distributors in Chile, and parent company Copec is the largest fuel distributor there. Abastible acquired Spanish Repsol's LPG assets in Ecuador and Peru in 2016.

By Alberto Araujo

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14/05/25

German road firms issued €10.5mn tender-rigging fines

London, 14 May (Argus) — German competition authorities have found seven companies guilty of co-ordinating tenders and contracts with order values usually of between €40,000 and €200,000. The German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) imposed fines totalling €10.5mn ($11.8mn) on seven road repair companies for customer and tender collusion, it announced on 13 May. The companies involved are AS Asphaltstrassensanierung, bausion Strassenbau-Produkte, Bitunovia, Gerhard Herbers, alles fur den Bau, Mainka Strassenunterhaltung, and Muritzer Oberflechentechnik (Mot). The companies AS, bausion, Herbers and Bitunova were found to have divided various clients from the federal states of Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt among themselves across 2018 and 2019. In 2016-19, the companies bausion, Liesen, Mainka and Mot were discovered to have regularly co-ordinated on tenders from public contracting authorities in Brandenburg and, in 2016 and 2017, Saxony-Anhalt, and the companies Liesen and Mot also co-ordinated tenders in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The violations affected a large number of tenders and contracts from public contracting authorities such as municipalities and state road construction authorities. The orders included road repair measures including surface treatment, patching of road surfaces, crack repair or the supply of bitumen emulsion or chippings. In addition to breaking antitrust law, the bid agreements are also punishable under Section 298 of the Criminal Code. The findings came to a head when the German Federal Cartel Office carried out a search operation in August 2019 together with the Dusseldorf Public Prosecutor's Office and the North Rhine-Westphalia State Criminal Police Office. When setting the fine, it was taken into account that Bitunovia had co-operated with the federal office within the framework of the leniency programme. All proceedings were concluded by way of amicable settlement and the fine notices are final. By Fenella Rhodes Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

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13/05/25

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13/05/25

US budget bill would prolong 45Z, boost crops

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13/05/25

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13/05/25

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12/05/25

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12/05/25

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12/05/25

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