(Bloomberg) -- Argentine industrial users such as Dow Chemical Co. are suffering gas shortages amid a record cold winter in the Latin American country where temperatures fell below those in the South Pole.“We’ve been facing gas shortages for three or four years, but this year is worse, maybe because of the cold,” Soledad Echague, Dow’s public affairs director in Argentina, said today in a telephone interview from Buenos Aires.
Dow, the world’s second-largest chemical maker, is importing ethane to fuel a polyethylene plant to make plastics while one of its ethylene plants is closed and another is working at minimum capacity because of the shortages, she said.
Argentine gas supplies are being reduced this month as demand increased during a polar front that brought snow to 12 of the country’s 23 provinces and pushed temperatures below those of Antarctica. Temperatures in Mendoza, the wine-producing region in western Argentina, fell as low as -8.9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 15.
Daily electricity demand set a record for three consecutive days between July 14 and July 16, according to Argentine’s Federal Planning Ministry.
Argentina started to face energy shortages in 2004 as price caps curtailed investments and demand was driven by an average economic growth of 8.5 percent between 2003 and 2008. The government cut gas exports to Chile in the period and started in 2008 to import liquefied natural gas to meet demand.
Argentina has an estimated 300 industrial consumers including Siderar SAIC, Bunge Ltd. and Cargill Inc. MetroGas SA and Gas Natural Ban SA are among natural-gas suppliers.
--Editors: Robin Saponar, Jessica Brice
To contact the reporter on this story: Rodrigo Orihuela in Buenos Aires at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
To contact the editor on this story: Dale Crofts in Buenos Aires at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-19/argentine-industries-face-gas-shortages-as-cold-spurs-demand.html
