Units of NOVA Corp., Calgary, and CMS Energy Corp., Dearborn, Mich., have proposed an Argentina-Chile integrated gas pipeline/power project.
NOVA Gas International and CMS Gas Transmission & Storage plan a $700 million project that involves transporting gas from Northwest Argentina's Noroeste basin that will fuel a proposed 400,000 kw combined cycle power plant at the line's terminus and serve other customers.
Construction of the 820 km, 20 in. Atacama pipeline is to begin in mid-1997 with commercial start-up slated for early 1999.
The line will extend from the Noroeste basin to Mejillones, with possible laterals to Antofagasta, Tocopilla, and Calama in northern Chile.
Project sponsors are in talks with several major industrial firms in northern Chile for sale of gas to be transported by the Atacama pipeline.
NOVA and CMS have filed applications with Chilean federal authorities in support of the project, having signed comparable agreements with Argentine and Chilean regional authorities for the Atacama project earlier this year.
NOVA has a 56.6% interest in the Argentina-Chile GasAndes pipeline project currently under construction and a 14.4% interest in Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN), Argentina's biggest gas transmission pipeline.
CMS holds a 25% interest in the TGN line.
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