• The distributor has announced that it will bring forward the payment times for its suppliers to mitigate the consequences of the measures implemented to tackle the coronavirus crisis.
• Nortegas is thus showing its commitment to the business and economic fabric of the geographical areas where it operates and is implementing measures aimed at cushioning the economic impact.
• At this challenging time, the company is focusing its efforts on three areas of action: guaranteeing the supply and service, protecting the safety of its employees, associates and customers, and to mitigate the social and economic impact of the health crisis.

Nortegas, the second gas distributor in Spain, has taken the extraordinary decision to bring forward the payment times established with its suppliers during the state of alarm. The company will thus pay the invoices early to 629 suppliers, without needing to wait for the agreed due date to make the payment.

This initiative has been set up for the suppliers with which Nortegas regularly works, in order to mitigate the impacts that the confinement and economic slowdown measures applied in this emergency are having on the business and economic fabric.

Javier Contreras, the Nortegas Managing Director, stressed: “Nortegas is firmly committed to the society in which we operate and we are focusing on helping to cushion the economic impact of this crisis. Bringing forward the payment times for our suppliers is a way to support all those companies, SMEs and the self-employed with whom we work every day all year”.

Maximum supply and safety guarantees

Nortegas continues to guarantee supply continuity efficiently and safely. The distributor’s emergency team continues to daily monitor all the facilities and provide an uninterrupted service to deal with any alert in order to activate, if necessary, the protocols designed to respond to the different types of possible incidents. Once the alert has been received, the intervention teams are in position to reach the place of the incidence in under 30 minutes and solve it as quickly as possible.

Nortegas’s operations involve working at the supply points and on public roads, and which limited to preventing potential risks and to guaranteeing optimal service conditions.   The company has therefore provided the workers who have to work outdoors with all the resources needed to work safely and avoid the risk of infection.

In addition to the emergency service, which has continued to operate as usual despite this new scenario, all employees are working as normal but remotely, thus guaranteeing both their safety and the natural gas supply to all its customers.

Three key areas in the action plan against COVID-19

Prior to the Government’s Royal Decree coming into force, Nortegas had triggered its coronavirus action plan in order to guarantee the continuity and correct supply of a fundamental service, as is natural gas. At the same time, a Coordination Committee has been set up to monitor and assess the situation on a daily basis and to keep in constant contact with the company’s different teams. The Committee’s work is focused on three areas of action:

• 1- Nortegas’s commitment to ensure the proper functioning of its facilities and thus guarantee the supply of natural gas to all its customers, many of which are on the front line of this emergency, as is the case of health centres, care homes, authorities, etc.
• 2- The company’s management is focused on guarantee optimum levels of safety, health and prevention for its employees, contractors and customers. Nortegas is therefore applying protocols for all field operations, suspending or postponing those requiring the presence of employees or contracts at customers’ homes or facilities, such as certain aspects of periodic inspecting or meter reading. Additionally, and pursuant to the applicable legislation after the state of alarm coming into force, the operations to cut off supplies in case of non-payment have been suspended
• 3- Nortegas’s determination to help, within its possibilities, to minimise the inevitable economic impact that this health crisis will have on the communities where it operations. Therefore, the company is striving to design measures to support its suppliers, contractors and suppliers, as is the case of bringing forward payment times, in order to mitigate the impacts of the business slowdown, ensure the prompt recovery of the operational tempo at the end of the state of alarm and maintain as far as possible the integrity of the productive and economic fabric in its areas of influence.

Javier Contreras, the Nortegas Managing Director, stressed: “it is our duty to continue to offer an optimum service, with maximum efficiency and guarantee, as we have been doing so up to now, the ensure the comfort of thousands of families and the correct functioning of hospitals, health centres, care homes and industry. We are fully focused on protecting Nortegas workers and their facilities, by scrupulously complying with the measures in the action plan and the instructions from the relevant authorities”.