Integrating S America’s pipelines “will take 30 years”

Tue, 26 June 2007

PETROBRAS’ president Jose Sergio Gabrielli said in late May that it would take 30 years to implement a plan to transport gas through an integrated pipeline connecting Venezuela to Argentina and Brazil. The head of Brazil’s state energy company said he felt optimistic about the matter, but he shared the same view as Venezuela, which plans to have its gasfields linked to the other two countries by the end of the next decade. “Our target has to be South America’s energy integration, because it is the best solution, the most rational one”, Mr Gabrielli said.

"I think it will take from 25 to 30 years, not less than that, for a pipe of that size to be completely assembled and working." The pipeline project is estimated at about $23 billion, and it would be completed by 2012, according to the original plan. The network is expected to transport 150-200 million cum/d of gas over 7,000km through the Amazon rainforest and to the metropolitan regions of Brazil and Argentina.