unitri

Filtrar Por:

< Voltar

Na Mídia - 01/04/20

ANP publishes consultation notice on third-party access to waterway terminals. By Godofredo Mendes Vianna and Paulo Campos Fernandes

Introduction

On 16 January 2020 the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) published the Notice of Public Consultation and Public Hearing 1/2020 to gather additional information and contributions from the market regarding its draft ANP Ordinance 251/2000 on the regulation of non-discriminatory access by interested third parties to waterway terminals (existing or to be built) for the handling of oil, its derivatives and biofuels.

Law 9,478/1997 provides free access to third parties that are not owners of maritime terminals. This rule aims to provide opportunities to all interested parties regarding the entry and exit of ANP-regulated products to and from port facilities, whether imported, exported or handled by cabotage.

The ANP has extended the free-access obligation beyond maritime terminals and included lakes and rivers, by reason of which Ordinance 251/2000 refers to waterway terminals.

Main issues addressed

The main issues addressed in the ordinance are:

  • general rules for free access;
  • rules for the provision of operator services;
  • rules for shipper and owner preferences;
  • the disclosure format for terminal capacity and availability information;
  • the disclosure format for reference rates for standardised terminal services;
  • the minimum requirements for general terminal service conditions;
  • access and capacity assignment requests; and
  • rates proposed by operators.

The ordinance was reviewed for the first and only time in 2002. However, since then, several laws which have crossover with the ordinance have been incorporated into the national legal system, including:

  • Law 10,233/2001, which created the National Waterway Transport Agency;
  • Law 12,815/2013, which changed the regulatory framework for the exploration of ports and terminals; and
  • Law 12,490 of 2011, which included biofuels within the jurisdiction of the ANP.

Therefore, the consultation notice proposes several amendments to the applicable ordinance, including:

  • new preference rules for shippers and owners;
  • the provision of free access to port pipelines afforded to long transport pipelines under ANP Resolution 35/2012;
  • vertical integration control measures, separating terminal operators and shippers as companies. Under this rule, companies which control a terminal cannot act as a trading company (ie, importer or domestic seller);
  • the decision to deny access to a terminal on request from an interested third party must be approved by the ANP; and
  • the ANP will impose restrictions for the agreement of long-term contracts with the ANP between terminal and traders in order to strengthen the spot market.

The ANP aims to further increase the competitiveness of the retail sector, creating more facilities for players to trade their fuels, either at long haul (importing) or cabotage.

The public consultation period is 60 days from the date of publication. The ANP has scheduled a public hearing to discuss the draft on 15 April 2020 at its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.

Published in ILO