PARIS�TotalFinaElf SA is indirectly acquiring a 9.7% stake in the Brazilian section of the $2 billion Brazil-Bolivia gas pipeline. The French company is acquiring the 33.3% interest that Australia's Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd. has in BBPP Holdings Ltda., which owns a 29% stake in Brazil's Tranportadora Brasileira Gasoduto Bolivia-Brasil SA, owner and operator of the Brazilian section of the pipeline.
The pipeline covers a distance of 500 km in Bolivia and 2,500 km in Brazil. It carries gas from Bolivia�where important discoveries have been made in the past 2 years�to rapidly growing markets in southern and southwestern Brazil. Transmission capacity of the gas pipeline, all of which is under contract, should rapidly reach 30,000 cu m/daay of gas and could be increased.
The share of natural gas in Brazil's total energy consumption is expected to rise from 2% to over 10% by the end of the decade.
The first section of the Bolivia-Brazil gas pipeline links Santa Cruz in Bolivia to Sa� Paulo. It came on stream in July 1999. The second section, from Sa� Paulo to Porto Alegre, was completed last month.
At the end of May, TotalFinaElf announced it would acquire the gas transmission assets of TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. in Argentina, Chile, and Southern Brazil (OGJ Online, May 31, 2000).