Peru's energy and mines ministry last week postponed until further notice the signing of a build, own, operate, and transfer contract with Belgium's Tractebel SA that covers the concession for and distribution of natural gas from the Camisea project in metropolitan Lima and Callao.
Preliminary work on the project's gas transmission pipeline and gas fields development program, meanwhile, continues.
Contract canceled
The ministry qualified Tractebel for the contract last month after reaching agreement with the consortium developing the Camisea transmission pipeline project-Transporte de Gas del Peru (TGP), headed by Argentine's Tecgas, a unit of Buenos Aires-based steel pipeline and construction firm Techint SA (OGJ Online, Mar. 21, 2002).
The Tractebel contract was to have been signed Mar. 22. The signing was postponed following allegations in the press that Tractebel-which owns and operates the Enersur coal-fueled power generator at Ilo on Peru's southern coast-had paid former President Alberto Fujimori a commission for approval of its license.
Tractebel denies the allegation, but Congress has begun an investigation.
Luis Ortigas, the government's general coordinator for the Camisea project, said that should the allegation be confirmed, it would not delay the project, as another company could take Tractebel's place.
