Paraguay is lobbying Argentina and Brazil to sign agreements signalling their political support for a proposed natural gas pipeline linking the three countries, according to a senior official in the landlocked South American nation.
Mauricio Bejarano, deputy minister of mines and energy, is optimistic that memorandums of understanding can be signed this year and a task force created to formally study Paraguay’s plan for a 1,050-kilometre (652 mile) conduit.
“We think this is a crucial year to move this proposal forward,” Bejarano said in an interview from Asuncion. Bolivia’s declining exports of locally produced gas to Brazil have created a sense of urgency for the project, he added.
Argentina is keen to sell more gas from its Vaca Muerta shale fields to Brazil by upgrading pipelines that run through Bolivia or building a new line directly to Brazil, or through Paraguay. Bolivia might not have any surplus gas to sell before the end of the decade due to falling output from its depleted fields, and Brazil started importing Argentine gas through Bolivia for the first time in April.
President Santiago Peña is trying to convince his neighbours to back a pipeline that would use the right of way along the Ruta Bioceánica highway currently under construction in Paraguay’s sparsely populated Chaco region. Almost half of the US$1.9 billion project would be built in Argentina and Brazil, where it would connect with existing pipelines, according to a study commissioned by Paraguay.
Paraguay could eventually use some of the gas to generate electricity as growing domestic energy demand threatens to deplete its surplus of hydroelectric power in the 2030s, Bejarano said. “We need to introduce a new energy source in our power matrix that today isn’t present,” he said.
by Ken Parks, Bloomberg
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