Oil & Gas Alert – August 2023

Board of Directors Resolution modifying the Rule “General Conditions of the Natural Gas Distribution Service and the Application of Tariffs to the End User” approved by Board of Directors Resolution Nº 054-2016-OS/CD

By means of Board of Directors Resolution Nº 142-2023-OS/CD, published on 11 August 2023 in the Official Gazette “El Peruano” (“Resolution”), the Rule “General Conditions of the Natural Gas Distribution Service and the Application of Tariffs to the End User”, approved by Board of Directors Resolution Nº 054-2016-OS/CD (“General Conditions”), was amended. This, in order to reflect in the natural gas supply contract for Regulated Consumers[1] the modifications made to the Regulation of Natural Gas Distribution by Duct Network approved by Supreme Decree Nº 042-99-EM, approved by Supreme Decree Nº 008-2021-EM; and to comply with the provisions of numeral 54. 1 of Article 54 of Law Nº 29571 – Code of Consumer Protection and Defense, which stipulated that the administrative approval of the general contracting clauses for the provision of public services, whether or not subject to economic regulation, is the responsibility of the competent regulatory body.

In this regard, the Resolution:

• Incorporated Annex Nº 2 to the General Conditions; which contains the General Clauses of the Natural Gas Supply Contract for Regulated Consumers (“General Clauses”), to be applied to supply contracts to be entered into as from 12 August 2023.
• It provided for the obligation of the Concessionaire to publish the General Clauses on its website.
• Modified Article 23 of the General Conditions, in order to specify that, prior to the start of the distribution service, the Regulated Consumer must sign a Supply Contract with the Concessionaire, as indicated in Annex Nº 2 above.
• Modified Article 33 of the General Conditions, referring to the billing period and term, specifying the following:

Exceptionally, for the first billing of a new supply, a billing period of no more than forty-five (45) calendar days may be applied, counted from the date the service is enabled.

When it is impossible to adequately measure consumption, the Concessionaire may make up to three (3) estimates during a calendar year, using the average of the last six (6) readings or the difference of readings of the maximum number of months of consumption available, and shall indicate on the bill the number of estimates made during the year.

In the case of seasonal supplies, the Concessionaire shall use the statistical information of the twelve (12) months of consumption immediately prior to the month in which the average consumption is calculated, in order to apply the average of the corresponding seasonal period, high or low, to the average.

[1] Consumer who purchases Natural Gas for a volume equal to or less than thirty thousand Standard Cubic Meters per day (30 000 m /day).

Any questions in this regard can be answered by Dr. Jorge Pérez-Taiman (jpereztaiman@estudiorodrigo.com), Dr. Carolina Noriega (cnoriega@estudiorodrigo.com), Dr. Piero Scarafone (pscarafone@estudiorodrigo.com) and/or Dr. Talía Hormaeche (thormaeche@estudiorodrigo.com).