Paraguayan Petroleum Company (Petropar) reduced from US$24,308,840 to US$12,772,077 the maximum budget for an international tender to purchase aviation fuels. The maximum planned volume also fell from 20,000 to 8,400 cubic meters. The opening of bids was rescheduled for September 23, 2026.
The changes were incorporated into the tender documents for International Electronic Reverse Auction No. 14/26, identified by ID No. 484.812. The session, initially scheduled for August 17, was successively postponed to August 21 and 27, September 1 and 4, and then September 15, before reaching the new date.
Although the budget and volumes were reduced, Petropar raised the reference price used to calculate the fuel from 360 to 477.50 US cents per gallon. The parameter includes Value-Added Tax (VAT) and is used to estimate the cost per cubic meter.
The revised tender documents maintain the purchase of Jet A-1 kerosene for the Paraguayan Air Force, in Luque, at Encarnación International Airport and at terminals in San Antonio and Villa Elisa. The limit per lot fell from 5,000 to 2,500 cubic meters, while the minimum was set at 1,500.
For AvGas 100 LL aviation gasoline, used mainly by aircraft with piston engines, the reduction was more significant. Each of the three destinations may receive between 100 and 300 cubic meters, compared with a ceiling of 5,000 cubic meters per location in the original tender documents.
The contract is part of Petropar's plan to enter the aviation-fuel market. The state-owned company intends to purchase the products for resale, while Royal Energy S.A. was presented as the partner responsible for investment, infrastructure, technical expertise and operational capacity. The project provides for the gradual installation of five aviation fuel plants in the country.
Key details of the partnership remain undisclosed, including the amount Royal Energy will invest, the locations of the five facilities, the timetable, the division of revenues and the allocation of risks. It has also not been clarified which procedure selected the company. Petropar President William Wilka said the company was chosen through a process, but did not identify the legal framework or the date of the agreement.
In the records cited in the proceedings, Raúl Arnaldo Gavilán Cáceres appears as president of Royal Energy, and Daiana Letizia María Ferrari Ginés as the company's legal representative and representative before the National Directorate of Public Procurement (DNCP), the body responsible for overseeing Paraguayan public procurement. The company says it has operated in the sector since 2017, when it began distributing aviation products for a multinational company that still operates in the local market.
Wilka had explained that the original budget referred only to the fuel purchase and did not include infrastructure, and that the 20,000 cubic meters represented a projection of progressive supply rather than simultaneous stock. After the tender documents were revised, the state-owned company's president said he would provide explanations for the reduction in volumes and the budget.