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Paraguay, Uruguay join South American gas pipeline project: PDVSA
Platts
Washington
Petroleumworld.com 07 26 06
Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay have signed a pact with Argentina, Brazil
and Venezuela to join a proposed natural gas pipeline project that will
stretch throughout South America, Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA said
over the weekend.Energy ministers from the six countries on Friday in Argentina signed a
natural gas integration memorandum that included the provision on joining the
pipeline project, PDVSA said in a statement."Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay have formally joined the Southern Gas
Pipeline project," the statement said.Bolivia has already been formally included in the 8,000 km (4,960-mile)
project last month at a special pipeline meeting in Caracas, while Venezuela
has been pushing since March for Paraguay and Uruguay to join. Further
information on why Bolivia appeared to be joining the project a second time
was not available due to a national holiday in Venezuela on Monday.The pipeline, which would carry around 150 million cubic meters/d of gas,
has an estimated cost of over $20 billion and would stretch from Venezuela
through the Brazilian Amazon to Argentina.Venezuela and Bolivia, with proven natural gas reserves of 150 Tcf and
around 27 Tcf respectively, would be the main contributors to the pipeline
while Argentina and Brazil would be the largest consumers.A final decision on whether to go ahead with the pipeline is expected to
be made by heads of state in August and the next ministerial meeting is
scheduled for September in Bolivia.For more news, request a free trial to Platts Gas Daily at
http://gasdaily.platts.com or subscribe now at
http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=3_39&products_id=41
Platts 25 07 06
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