Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, May 9 -- Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) will start construction May 9 of the 954-km Cacimbas-Catu natural gas pipeline, which will form the main part of the 1,387 km, three-section Gasene pipeline.
The new Cacimbas-Catu stretch, which is scheduled for completion in 2010, will complete the entire line. The 130-km Cacimbas-Vitoria section and the 303-km Cabiunas-Vitoria section were launched in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
In February, Petrobras started commercial operations on the Cabiunas-Vitoria stretch which transports 5.5 million cu m/day of gas from the Espirito Santo basin to the southeast region for use in powering three thermoelectric power plants in Rio de Janeiro state.
Petrobras secured financing for the third leg of the Gasene line from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), which provided a $2.54 billion line of finance. Some $750 million of that came from a line of credit to BNDES from the China Development Bank.
The Gasene project, being constructed by China's state-owned Sinopec Group, is part a gas policy that aims at reducing Brazil's dependence on imported gas supplies, especially from neighboring Bolivia.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
