Lima, Sep 9 (EFE).- The Peruvian government on Thursday declared the construction of a gas plant in the southern Andean region of Cuzco, the scene of recent large-scale protests against exports of that fuel, to be a national necessity.
An emergency decree published Thursday in the official gazette states that the construction of the liquefied petroleum gas fractionation plant in La Convencion province, where the massive Camisea gas field is located, is a "national necessity and an immediate priority."
The executive order authorizes the Energy and Mines Ministry, the Cuzco regional government and the municipalities involved in the project to adopt the necessary measures to bring it to fruition.
It also adds that the Economy and Finance Ministry will approve the pre-investment study in a period of eight days.
Financing for the plant, to be supplied by Camisea and valued at $25 million, will come from the Economy and Finance Ministry, the regional government and municipalities in La Convencion, the decree states.
Cabinet chief Javier Velasquez traveled Thursday to Quillabamba, La Convencion's capital, to join Cuzco's regional president, Hugo Gonzalez, and district Mayor Marco Chalco in signing the contract authorizing the plant's construction.
Authorities in La Convencion promoted a general strike in July aimed at pressuring the federal government into supplying that region with the natural gas that is extracted from Camisea - whose reserves total an estimated 11 trillion cubic feet - and which currently is being distributed to cities along Peru's central coast or destined for export.
The Peruvian government last month issued a decree requiring gas from Camisea's Lot 88 to be used to supply the domestic market.
Velasquez said Aug. 19 that that decree overrides an earlier order to set aside some of Lot 88's reserves for export, a decision that sparked heated opposition in southern Peru and among nationalist sectors and leftists.
Protesters during the July 27-Aug. 9 general strike complained about potential supply shortages and noted that the domestic retail price of the fuel is higher than that paid by foreign customers.
In talks following the end of the strike, Velasquez pledged that gas extracted from Lot 88 would be exclusively destined for internal consumption over the next five years, while gas for export would come from Lot 56, also part of Camisea.
The fractionation plant to supply LPG, used in households for cooking, is to be built within a period of approximately two years and be administered by a public-private partnership.
The royalties paid to the state by the private consortium developing the Camisea gas field totaled $1.78 billion from the start of operations in 2004 through February of this year.
