By an OGJ correspondent
LIMA, Mar. 21 -- At least conditional approval of an environmental impact assessment may be imminent for the proposed Camisea natural gas and liquids transportation and distribution pipelines in Peru, said a ranking government official.
Jaime Quijandria, Peru's minister of energy and mines, predicted that the EIA necessary for construction of the pipelines through rainforests and over the Andes to the coast should be approved by next week. That approval might be conditional, he said, but work on the pipeline project could begin.
Transportadora de Gas del Peru SA (TGP), the consortium in charge of building the proposed pipeline system, had expected to begin work last December. It has, however, been able to ship equipment and pipes to the project area.
A public hearing was scheduled yesterday on an EIA submitted to environmental officials by TGP. Quijandria said mayors of the affected districts would be the first to evaluate the EIA.
The proposed pipeline will run from the Camisea natural gas fields to the project's city gate at Lurin, south of Lima. It will serve both residential and industrial areas, although industries are to be the first customers.
Operator prequalification
Meanwhile, Peru's energy ministry last month officially classified Tractebel SA of Belgium as the prequalified strategic operator for the concession to distribute natural gas through pipelines in Lima and Callao.
That prequalification is required under the "build, own, operate, and transfer" concession won by TGP, a subsidiary of Argentine's Techint SA.
TGP, through the Techint subsidiary Tecgas, is the operator in the downstream segment of the Camisea project to build the gas and liquid pipelines from the Camisea fields 500 km east of Lima to the city gate south of the city. Regulations, however, do not allow the same company to distribute gas within the cities.
Klaus Huys, general manager of Enersur, a coal-fired power generator operated by Tractebel in southern Peru, told Andina, the government news agency, that Tractebel is discussing joining the TGP consortium, with possibly a few more weeks needed to negotiate agreement.
