Chavez Says Venezuela-Brazil Gas Pipeline Has Been Frozen by Partners

A gas pipeline in Venezuela Venezuela's Hugo Chavez said he felt disappointed that his jumbo gas pipeline proposal to supply the South American continent had been "frozen" by several of the potential beneficiaries of the multi billion project.

"There's an attack on the gas pipeline from the very South American beneficiaries that have managed to freeze the project," claimed Chavez in a radio and television message from Caracas.

He admitted that until recently the project was advancing on technical issues and with the signature of several agreements with his counterparts from Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia, presidents Lula da Silva, Nestor Kirchner and Evo Morales.

"But now it's all frozen, the project apparently has been frozen: no further meetings, schedules have been postponed; we can't force others to build a pipeline to the South if they don't want to," said Chavez.

However the Venezuelan president underlined that his proposal is not for money since it would be far more beneficial to sell natural gas at market prices to the United States and insisted that the pipeline idea had more to do with South American solidarity.

"We'd never sell gas to South America at developed countries' prices. If money was the motive we'd be thinking in selling to the North, but no, we are Bolivarians, we want to share our wealth with the rest of South American peoples", said Chavez.

The project contemplates the construction of a net of pipelines from Venezuela extending to Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay totaling some 8.000 kilometers and demanding an investment in the range of 23 billion US dollars.

But from the very start energy experts have argued that for the project to be profitable Venezuela would have to pump between 150 and 200 million cubic meters per day of gas, when it will only be pumping 50 million cubic meters by 2016.

Besides, the project faces serious environmental challenges particularly crossing the Amazon rain forest and the "pantanal" or tropical marsh lands in the heart of the continent.

Chavez who has insistently promoted regional energy integration with the purpose of strengthening Latinamerica reiterated Venezuela has sufficient gas reserves to supply the continent for a century.

According to official data, Venezuela's natural gas production in 2006 was 1.6 billion cubic feet per day.

Mercopress

Tags:

You May Also Like

Brazil’s Petrobras Investing US$ 55 Billion in 2008

Almir Barbassa. the Financial director of state-controlled Brazilian oil multinational Petrobras, informed that investment ...

Brazil Downplays Chavez Snub. He Skips Mercosur Summit to Go Arms Shopping in Moscow

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez' likely failure to attend the upcoming Mercosur presidential summit in ...

Land Reform Hailed in Brazil as Key for Development

The FAO (UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization) secretary general, Jaques Diuf, declared that land ...

Brazil Appeals to WTO Against US Farm Subsidies

Brazil has decided to place an inquiry at the Dispute Settlement Body at the ...

Brazil Sees Two Digit Increase in Domestic and Foreign Flights

Passenger movement on domestic flights continues to expand. The flux in August was the ...

The Lula Paradox

Eight years ago, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated president of Brazil with ...

Brazilian community paper printed in the US East Coast

Brazil – Many Emigrants, Fewer Immigrants

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries an estimated 3.5 million people from ...

Brazil Presents the World in Europe Today Its Ethanol Success Story

Sugarcane and global warming. What do they have to do with each other? Everything, ...

25 per 100,000: Brazil’s Per-Capita Homicide Rate Is Three Times the World Average

Earlier this year, in September, the United Nations released a report on Brazilian arbitrary, ...

Brazil’s Patent Breaking Is No Theft, Says Doctors Without Borders

The non-governmental organization, Doctors Without Borders (MSF, Médecins Sans Frontières), denied that a possible ...