Atxurra announces that Repsol’s investment in Euskadi is frozen until there is regulatory stability

2023-10-30 16:51:50

The president of Petronor and director of Repsol, Emiliano López Atxurra, has assured that the company’s CEO, Josu Jon Imaz, has “never” said that they will leave Spain, but he does consider that their investments “have to be in stand by’” if there is no “stable and predictable” regulatory framework.

After rejecting tax “discrimination” and the penalization of ‘oil & gas’ “on incorrect technical bases in terms of energy transition and on more ideological bases”, Atxurra has opted for a stable Government that generates “broad consensus” because “the real challenge” will be to position itself in European technological development.

In this way, he referred to Imaz’s statements last Thursday, in which he warned that, if the tax on energy companies is extended, his investments in Spain would be in danger. In an interview with Radio Euskadi, Atxurra said that Josu Jon Imaz’s words are those of the company’s board of directors. «It is a communication that has a double signal. On the one hand, that of our business commitment in Spain, that is, it has never been said that he is going to leave Spain. Secondly, our warning that, if there is no stable and predictable regulatory framework, adequate to other regulatory frameworks in our European environment, investments have to be on stand-by », he added.

The announcement by Repsol’s CEO has placed several investments that the group had planned for Petronor in a kind of limbo, as EL CORREO announced last week and Atxurra recalled today. Specifically, the installation of a 100 megawatt electrolyzer that was to supply hydrogen to the refinery starting in 2025 is thus at risk. Some estimates suggest that the set of projects that could be in danger at Petronor exceeds 200 million in investment in the next four years. At the moment, the company has not specified which specific projects, which were still in the study phase, may remain dormant or be canceled permanently.

Repsol has clarified that investments that were definitively approved or already in the implementation phase are not in danger. Thus, Petronor will maintain the construction of its synthetic fuels experimentation plant, which is already in the assembly period in the Port of Bilbao. In these facilities, where an electrolyzer will also be installed -although only 10 megawatts-, the company wants to make the first developments on a type of fuel that fits into the energy transition. They are produced from hydrogen and CO2 capture. The carbon dioxide they emit at the time of combustion is equivalent to that used in their production, hence the net balance is zero.

Taxes

In his opinion, “taxes are an important asset for the well-being of citizens” and, therefore, “necessary”, but he has pointed out that “taxes and collection also require maximization in public management, and in effectiveness.” and efficiency of public services.

In this sense, he explained that Petronor alone, between 2019 and 2022, has paid 3,000 million euros in taxes to the Treasury of Bizkaia, and 2,000 to the Tax Agency, of the General Administration of the State.

According to him, what they propose, from a tax point of view, is “non-discrimination.” “And that means that you, due to a specific situation, cannot propose an exceptional tax system outside the conventional regulatory framework for the approval of taxes,” she stated.

Likewise, he considers that “the tax approach”, in his case, “focusing only on ‘oil & gas’, is discrimination because it does not take into account what our sector is, which is in transition and in the free framework.” «We must not forget that the energy approach is articulated around the following axes: natural resources, which are in the free world market; technology, which requires a lot of innovation and a lot of investment; and industrial processes, which also require a lot of investment and materialization of industrial activity,” he recalled.

López Atxurra explained that the three axes “are subject, not as benefits fallen from the sky, but regulated by the global market”, and has considered that “you cannot penalize, because you are demonizing oil & gas.” «Oil & gas, and we specifically, have started, and we told the market – and the market is examining us, the analysts are examining us -, since December 2019 that we have the objective of net zero emissions in 2050, and we are investing, we are developing and we are transforming. That is why we started the approach to hydrogen, synthetic fuel, renewable energies, therefore, as a multi-energy company,” he defended.

political scene

Regarding the political scenario, he highlighted that companies need “a stable framework” because, “if there is no stability, there is no future, no investments or strategy.” “I am fundamentally concerned that we need stability and a broad consensus, because we are playing in the period 24-29, after the elections to the European Parliament, our position in European industrial technological development and our position in the community institutions,” he said. he warned.

For this reason, he has emphasized that “stability is necessary, and that stability means broad consensus.” Asked if this can be given by Pedro Sánchez, he responded that, “at the moment, it has to be given by anyone who is capable of generating a broad consensus.”