“Petropar exists to facilitate access to fuel by protecting citizens’ pockets and contributing to the standardization of the oil sector”, states Mr. Eddie Jara, President of Petropar. In the last six months, since Mr. Jara took over the leading role for the second time, Paraguay’s state-owned oil company has become a leader in quality control and the company of choice for consumers thanks to its prices and improved services. Already during his first mandate, Petropar expanded its national coverage from 35 to 250 stations, which provided the company with economic self-sufficiency. Then, they invested hundreds of thousands of US dollars to obtain first line equipment and materials so that today they have the best laboratory in the country. “Unlike the rest of our competitors, we can independently demonstrate to our operators and end consumers that we have the quality we advertise”, assures Mr. Jara.

On the other hand, they have taken on a regulatory role that not only ensures that consumers get the lowest possible prices, but also that other companies limit speculation in order to remain competitive. “Since we started, our objective has been to offer the best prices. To be the first to go down when we had to go down, and if we had to go up, to be the last, always taking care of the citizens’ best interests”, explains Mr. Jara, adding that in six months their policies on lowering prices have promoted savings of over US$ 50 million. As a result, this has helped to keep inflation under control, reduce intercity freight rates and even lower contraband considerably in key problematic areas.

Furthermore, Petropar has also taken the lead in promoting sustainable initiatives. They recently signed an agreement with the Ministry of the Environment to reduce or even stop enabling new stations due to an excess of supply, which takes many operators to start skipping their obligations in order to remain competitive. In addition, Petropar is focused on the promotion of biofuels, that is why all gasoline marketed by them is blended with local anhydrous ethanol, which is produced on their own alcohol plant. Currently, Paraguay has the second highest percentage of gasoline blends in the region, reaching up to 27% alcohol, and the company is studying the possibility of increasing this percentage to 30% and creating new products to replace aviation kerosene and diesel from ships. “Paraguay, even with its size, will be a very important global player in the development of these technologies”, assures Mr. Jara, with the same confidence that has helped him transform Petropar into the number one choice, and a true ally, of the Paraguayan people.