SOUTH AMERICAN LEADERS PROPOSE MASSIVE TRANSAMAZONIAN GAS PIPELINE FROM VENEZUELA THROUGH BRAZIL AND ARGENTINA.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has pledged to build a natural-gas pipeline that would stretch from his country to Argentina. He has met with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to begin a preliminary-planning process for the megapipeline, although energy-industry analysts have expressed doubts about the economic viability of such a gigantic project and environmental groups have fears that its construction would damage the Amazonian ecosystem. The project would run between 8,000 km and 10,000 km and would supposedly require an investment of US$20 billion, though cost estimates have varied widely.
US$10, 20, 25 billion? Plans still "very preliminary"
Chavez promised to help build the pipeline during Nov. 21 talks with Kirchner, and the three presidents "consolidated" their will to push the project forward in a Jan. 19 meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay, where they were attending the latest meeting of the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR). Though they had the will, the way was still unclear, with officials saying plans were still "very preliminary." The trio said they intended to look at initial plans at a March 10 meeting in Argentina.
The project "is in a very preliminary stage for us to make any type of affirmation, but...the possibilities of [gas] exportation from Venezuela could be greater than 100 million cubic meters per day, that is an extraordinary thing," said Jose Eduardo Martinez Felicio, general subsecretary for South America in Brazil's Foreign Relations Ministry.
Chavez has also invited Bolivia, home to the continent's second-largest gas reserves after Venezuela, to join in the megaproject. He made similar overtures to other MERCOSUR and South American nations in his statements at the Jan. 19 summit in Montevideo.
The pipeline would take seven years to build and cost US$17 billion to US$20 billion, according to Venezuela's Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez. The proposed pipeline would start at Venezuela's Caribbean coast and run through Brazil before reaching Argentina. The estimated cost for the pipeline running south from Venezuela through Brazil to Argentina was said to be US$10 billion in November. Later estimates from Chavez fell in a range between US$20 billion and US$25 billion.
"We are moving forward with tremendous political will to make this project a reality," Ramirez said. He said the pipeline would be the "spinal cord" of South America. Venezuela has sought to deepen energy ties in the region to create new markets and lessen its dependence on the US, which takes about two-thirds of the country's oil exports.
The pipeline would hypothetically complement plans to set up a proposed six-country "energy ring" designed to distribute gas through more southerly countries of the Southern Cone region (see NotiSur, 2005-07-01). The feasibility of the energy ring has repeatedly come under question as many observers have said Peru's...
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