Bolivia has made major strides in moving its natural gas production to market via big pipeline projects to Brazil and Chile.
An Enron Corp. unit last week signed a memorandum of understanding with Bolivia's state owned Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) to form a joint venture to develop, finance, construct, and operate a pipeline to export Bolivian gas to Brazil. The pact also covers potential construction of pipelines to bring gas from Peru and export gas to Paraguay.
In addition, BHP Power Inc. signed an agreement with YPFB and Chile's Empresa Nacional de Petroleo (ENAP) for joint development of a 1,100 km gas pipeline to ship natural gas from southern Bolivia to mining regions in northern Chile.
BOLIVIA-BRAZIL
Under the memorandum YPFB signed with Enron Development Corp., YPFB will own 60% of the joint venture company and Enron 40%.
The project involves construction of an 1,800 mile km pipeline from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, to Sao Paulo and a line south from Sao Paulo to Curitiba and eventually Porto Alegre.
That corresponds to a route detailed in an outline agreement signed by the governments of Bolivia and Brazil in 1992 covering a total 2,270 km pipeline system that included a spur from the existing Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro system to Belo Horizonte, Brazil (see map, OGJ, May 11, 1992, p. 30).
At that time, capacity was projected at 283-565 MMcfd. Enron and YPFB did not disclose projected capacity for the current project.
YPFB and Brazil's Petroleos Brasileiro SA in 1993 signed an agreement calling for Bolivia to sell Brazil 280 MMcfd of gas during the first 7 years of a 20 year contract, with the volume expected to double the next 13 years.
Cost of the Bolivian portion of the pipeline is estimated at $400 million. Total project cost could be $1.5-2 billion, depending on the pipeline's ultimate size.
Bolivia hopes to link major gas reserves in Southeast Peru with Brazil and other markets through development of a Peru-Bolivia pipeline. Initial efforts also are under way to link Bolivia and Paraguay, although the earlier accord between Bolivia and Brazil dropped a southern route that would have extended from southern Bolivia through Paraguay to Brazil.
BOLIVIA-CHILE PROJECT
BHP will be lead developer of the Bolivia-Chile pipeline and related power generation and market development projects. YPFB will commit gas reserves to the project, BHP said.
Chile's ENAP will provide imported gas to fire power plants to be built during the next 2-5 years and tied into the northern Chile electricity supply grid.
BHP plans to complete a project feasibility study later this year and expects that first gas could be transported through the pipeline in 1997.
Project cost, route, and other details are not disclosed.
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