Rescue plan for Petroperu: Will they approve the radical adjustment?

Finally, there is a serious plan to try to pull Petroperú out of the financial disaster that different administrations have been leading it into. Now, the big question is whether the Minister of Energy and Mines, Rómulo Mucho, and the Minister of Economy and Finance, José Arista, will have enough political support to take on this hot potato and approve the strong adjustment proposed by the interim board for the state oil company. While this board has proposed radical but necessary measures, such as selling Petroperú's central building and 100 other assets, a deep cut of at least a third of the personnel, or bringing in a private and independent administrator to the company, just to mention a few key points, the Shareholders' Assembly of the oil company owned by all Peruvians must still approve this ambitious plan. The only shareholder of Petroperú is the Peruvian State, and its board is currently composed of 60% by the Ministry of Economy and 40% by the Ministry of Energy and Mines. In other words, the decision to approve the adjustment program in the state oil company rests mainly on the head of the MEF, José Arista, who understands very well the magnitude of the financial problem and the transparency issues of the company. Shortly after taking office in mid-February, Arista accused the members of the previous board of lying about the company's financial situation and the modernization project of the Talara Refinery. That is why, as the majority shareholder, one of his first measures was to remove them all and appoint the current board with a temporary character. "There is a culture of lying here. The one below lies to the middle, the middle lies to the one above, and the one above lies to the Council of Ministers," said the head of the MEF at the time. By appointing independent directors with technical profiles, such as Oliver Stark (president) or former Minister of Economy, David Tuesta (director), Arista sought a real rescue plan that would allow the company to be rescued from insolvency and prevent more Peruvian money from being wasted on this white elephant. Today, both Arista and Mucho already have that plan, and what remains is for both of them to give full political support to the interim board they appointed so that it can implement these urgent measures. It is worth noting that, according to Gestión sources, the entire board will submit their resignations if the General Shareholders' Assembly does not approve this program. Evidently, there are already pressures from the Petroperú Workers' Union, which threatens a national strike out of fear of losing a series of privileges. But as Minister Arista himself said a few months ago: "This is a very strong union. Just yesterday I was looking at the level of privileges they have, and it goes on and on and on. (They have) a series of privileges as if they were in Dubai." And clearly, we are not in Dubai, nor is Petroperú, which has a debt of US$6.5 billion!, an Arab oil company. Therefore, it is urgent to implement measures to protect the money of all Peruvians, so that it is not further spent on a bankrupt company that still maintains golden payrolls today. Can Minister José Arista do it?