PETROBRAS PLANS BIG LPG STORAGE PROJECT IN BRAZIL
Petroleos Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) plans to construct liquefied petroleum gas storage facilities on Brazil's coast with a capacity of 200,000 cu m at a cost of $470 million.
Petrobras, Brazil's state oil company, is considering construction of two 100,000 cu in capacity storage caverns near the Barroso (Tebar) marine terminal at Sao Sebastiao, Sao Paulo state. Each will be about 26.5 m at a depth of about 18 in. Project construction is expected to get under way by yearend, with start-up scheduled for 1995-96.
Petrobras expects the storage caverns to save $2-6 million/yr in transportation costs.
Most Brazilian LPG currently moves to market via pipeline or road, with about 200,000 cu m/year shipped in coastal tankers. Increasing storage capacity initially will trim $2 million/year in storage costs. By having the increased storage capacity, Petrobras will be able to use larger capacity--75,000 metric tons--tankers and save another $4 million/year in transportation costs.
Brazil imports most of its LPG, which is used mainly for cooking.
Current LPG storage capacity at Alemoa terminal in Sao Paulo state, Madre de Deus terminal in Bahia state, and Ilha Redondo terminal in Rio de Janeiro state covers only 10 days of consumption. The new storage caverns will jump that to 30 days.
Sao Sebastiao was chosen because it is near Petrobras' Paulinia refinery, where plans call for delivery via pipeline of 1.3-1.5 million cu m/year of LPG imported into the Tebar terminal.
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