Southern Cone gas and power short-term outlook: September 2022

The end of the winter represented a relief for the gas and power markets in the Southern Cone. Now, countries are preparing themselves to improve market fundamentals in the coming months. Argentina has finally announced the next rounds of the Gas Scheme, which aims to boost utilisation of the Tratayen-Saliqueló pipeline and support redevelopment of mature basins. Chile has also taken advantage of the better production scenario in Argentina and secured nearly 8 Mcmd of firm export agreements. Meanwhile, improved hydrology conditions have been saving Brazilian markets. Despite inflows have been lower than the long-term average, national reservoir levels reached 58%, the highest level for this month since 2011. As a result, the country has imported only three LNG cargoes in September. Despite being substantially lower than last year, such dependency will remain for longer as Petrobras has just announced another postponement of the Route 3 start-up.