The Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE) participated in the Meeting of MERCOSUR Ministers of Mines and Energy, where the Executive Secretary, Andrés Rebolledo Smitmans, stated that energy integration constitutes a strategic political decision essential for reducing external vulnerabilities, strengthening energy security and consolidating regional autonomy.
During his intervention, the Executive Secretary highlighted OLADE’s technical coordination with Member and Associate States through SGT 9 and SGT 15 on Mining and Geology, from which the Organization promotes an agenda of regulatory convergence, regional energy planning and institutional strengthening. He underscored that the Energy Planning Council is emerging as a key pillar for reinforcing the region’s energy institutional framework and enabling more efficient alignment of public policies oriented toward cohesive and resilient energy markets.
At the meeting, the Ministers of Energy and Mining of MERCOSUR and Chile as an Associate State recognized the strategic role of the energy and mining sectors as central drivers of regional integration and as essential components for strengthening energy security, system resilience and sustainable development. They acknowledged the accumulated experience in electric interconnection, gas integration, renewable energies, biofuels and strategic minerals, as well as the progress achieved within MERCOSUR’s technical working groups. They expressed their commitment to coordinated action aimed at advancing the essential infrastructure for gas integration, regulatory harmonization, the elimination of tariff, customs and fiscal barriers, and the strengthening of market transparency to ensure conditions that enable new energy flows among the countries of the bloc. They also highlighted the importance of the Energy and Gas Integration Study, developed by OLADE with financing from CAF, as a technical reference to guide joint policies, and underscored the reactivation of the Electric and Gas Integration Commission as a tool to deepen regional cooperation.
The Ministers further emphasized the need to expand biofuel production and cooperation, advance regulatory convergence on sustainable aviation fuels, and strengthen regional collaboration on strategic minerals, which are fundamental to energy transitions.
In the framework of the MERCOSUR Energy and Mineral Integration Seminar, OLADE’s Chief Advisor for Strategic Affairs, Guido Maiulini, moderated the session “Integração Gasífera no Mercosul,” with the participation of authorities from Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The session jointly addressed infrastructure needs, competitiveness factors, regulatory coordination and the enabling conditions required for new gas flows in the region. Maiulini stated that the region is facing a decisive opportunity to advance in gas integration, and that OLADE will continue driving the necessary dialogues to fully harness this potential.
