Brazil's state-owned oil and gas company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has awarded two contracts for portions of the Bolivia-Brazil gas pipeline project to two international groups led by the U.S. joint venture Brown & Root-Murphy LLC (BRM).
Petrobras let a $90 million contract for construction in Bolivia of a 557-km, 32-in. pipeline from Rio Grande, Bolivia, to the Bolivia-Brazil border near Puerto Aguirre, Bolivia, to BRM-CPB, a venture of BRM 70% and Bolivian partner Consorcio Petrolero Boliviano, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 30%.
Work is slated for completion by December 1998.
Petrobras also let contract for $110 million for construction in Brazil of a 522-km, 32-in. pipeline from the Brazil-Bolivia border near Corumba, Brazil, to a point southeast of Campo Grande, Brazil, to a combine of BRM and Sao Paulo-based Constructoes E Comercio Camargo Correa SA. This project is to be completed by January 1999.
All told, BRM will be building 1,079 km of the total 1,815 km involved in Phase I of Petrobras's planned Bolivia-Brazil pipeline project (OGJ, June 23, 1997, Newsletter). That project is considered a litmus test for the evolution of a transnational gas grid in South America's Southern Cone countries.
Brown & Root Energy Services, a unit of Dallas-based Halliburton Co., and Murphy Bros. International, a unit of the Murphy Bros. Inc. pipeline construction firm based in East Moline, Ill., formed the 50-50 BRM joint venture early in 1996 to seek international projects as joint venture partners.
Brown & Root sought to tap its international background in engineering and project management, while Murphy offered background in onshore pipeline construction and a large fleet of onshore pipelaying equipment.
Copyright 1997 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
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