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South American energy summit to focus on ethanol, poverty
By Victor Flores
AFP
PORLAMAR, Venezuela
Petroleumworld.com 04 16 07
South American leaders will gather on Monday to discuss energy integration projects at a summit hosted by Hugo Chavez, oil-rich Venezuela's firebrand president whose opposition to ethanol puts him at odds with his Brazilian counterpart.
The two-day summit on Venezuela's Margarita island is expected to focus largely on regional projects promoted by Venezuela, the only Latin American member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
But Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Sunday development and social issues will also be on the agenda.
"We are not going to talk only about energy," Ramirez told reporters. "We see energy as a very effective tool for reaching social equilibrium."
As a case in point, he mentioned plans to build a gas pipeline between Venezuela and the Pacific coast of Colombia and Panama, which involves investing 10 million dollars in improving the quality of life in villages along the pipeline route.
The South American leaders will also discuss ethanol, a biofuel produced mainly by Brazil from sugarcane and the United States from corn.
Aides said Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would reiterate his commitment to the expansion of ethanol, which he highlighted in talks last month with US President George W. Bush.
Both Chavez and his Cuban ally Fidel Castro have warned that increased ethanol production would fuel global hunger by using up arable land needed for food production.
But the Venezuelan president insisted he would not pick a fight with Brazil's moderate leftist leader.
"We will never fight with Lula, we will never fight with Brazil. Our enemy is the US empire," Chavez said.
"The issue is not ethanol as an additive. The issue is the US empire wanting to substitute gasoline with ethanol. That's crazy."
But US Ambassador William Brownfield said on Friday Washington hoped the energy summit would help promote the development of the biofuel.
"We believe ethanol is an important and possibly essential element in conversations over energy for the future," he told journalists.
"Ethanol is not the solution for the 21st century, but without doubt, it is part of the solution."
Uruguayan Vice President Nin Noboa, meanwhile, called Sunday for a "spirit of solidarity" between energy exporting countries of the region and those that do not have their own energy resources.
Leaders at the summit also planned to discuss another ambitious pipeline project that would extend 5,000-miles (8,000-kilometers) and deliver natural gas from Venezuela to Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Brazil and Venezuela agreed in January to move ahead with the first stage of the project, which would take the pipeline to the Brazilian city of Recife.
Chavez is also certain to highlight his country's Petro-America project that sells crude at preferential prices to impoverished countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Buoyed by high oil prices, Venezuela is also building refineries in Cuba, Brazil, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay.
On the global scene Venezuela, together with Iran, is promoting the creation of an OPEC-like cartel for natural gas exporting countries. Both countries' energy ministers discussed the idea during a two-day gathering in Doha earlier this month.
The presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela are scheduled to attend the April 16-17 First South American Energy Summit on Isla Margarita, off Venezuela's Caribbean coast.
AFP 16 1032 GMT 04 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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