Brazil wants to finance the second stage of the Argentine gas pipeline

The Rio Oil&Gas Fair served for Brazil to express its interest in financing the second stage of the Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline.

The work would allow gas from Vaca Muerta to reach Brazilian territory to replace imports from Bolivia.

“We had meetings with authorities and also with the Brazilian private sector, which expressed their interest in being able to replace the decline in imports from Bolivia with gas from Argentina, particularly from Neuquén with the development of Vaca Muerta,” said the Minister of Energy of Neuquén, Alejandro Monteiro, in a conversation with +e on LMPlay.

This project requires the construction of the first and second stages of the Néstor Kirchner Gas Pipeline.

Enarsa has already contracted the engineering of the second stage to be completed in 2024 or 2025.

“We are talking with the gas producers to look for a financing scheme for that section of the pipeline,” he added.

In this sense, Monteiro pointed out that the ambassador in Brazil, Daniel Scioli, commented on the interest of the South American power to participate in financing the second stage of the gas pipeline.

“This stage includes as a complementary work the revision of the North Gas Pipeline, which is the one that today receives imports from Bolivia, and the production of the Northwest Basin that reaches the center of the country to supply the demand of the industrial sector of Argentina,” he explained.

With the second stage and the reversion, Neuquén can take 19 MMm3/d of gas, which would pass through Bolivia to the infrastructure on the Brazilian side to the industrial and electric power sector of São Paulo.

“The fundamental thing is to develop the conditions of the agreement that we should have country-country, i.e., Argentina and Brazil, for the gas supply from Argentina.

“This agreement could include some kind of swap between countries: Argentina could offer gas, and at certain times of the year, Argentina could import electricity from Brazil, which has a large hydroelectric generation,” he said.

The meeting between the Secretary of Energy of the Nation, Flavia Royón, and the Minister of Energy of Brazil, Bento Costa Lima Leite, made it possible to start working on these points and to agree on a future meeting in Neuquén.

With information from Lmneuquen