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South America oil, gas summit to open in Venezuela
AFP
PORLAMAR
Petroleumworld.com 04 17 07
South American presidents gathered Monday on the eve of a summit on pipelines, refineries and a gas cartel, promising not to lock horns over biofuels.
The two-day summit on Margarita island is expected to focus on big-ticket regional projects promoted by Venezuela, the only Latin American member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
In a prelude to the summit, host President Hugo Chavez lay the cornerstone of a PDVSA-Petrobras complex with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
"Nothing better than this event to open this summit," Chavez said of the plants, one of which will produce polyethylene and the other, polypropylene.
It will be owned 50-50 by binational, private-public partnerships, which, Chavez said, shows "private investment will not be excluded."
Pequiven, a subsidiary of Petroleos of Venezuela SA, PDVSA, and Braskem, a subsidiary of Brazil's Odebrecht will invest in the five-billion-dollar project 300 kilometers (185 miles) outside Caracas.Besides Chavez and Lula, slated to attend the meeting on Venezuela's Caribbean island Margaritas are Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia, Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Nicanor Duarte of Paraguay, Alan Garcia of Peru and Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay.
The presidents will tackle other projects, such as a gas pipeline between Venezuela and the Pacific Coasts of Colombia and Panama, expected to provide 10 million dollars to improve 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 Lula 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.
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, which 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.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.
AFP 17 0306 GMT 04 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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