Pipeline Leak Cuts Natural-Gas Supply to Southern Brazil

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Several industries in southern Brazil have been forced to shut down after a leak in Petrobras' (NYSE:PBR) (Rio de Janeiro) Gasbol pipeline, which runs from Brazil to Bolivia, cut the supply of natural gas to the region. The leak is believed to have occurred around midnight, November 24, as a result of severe weather conditions. The affected segment of the pipeline is located in Blumenau, Santa Catarina.

Petrobras's Refap refinery in Rio Grande do Sul shut down its 15,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) diesel hydrotreater and hydrogen unit because of the lack of natural gas. The 94,000-BBL/d Crude 1 unit is processing at 20% of its maximum capacity, and Crude 2 is processing 47,000 BBL/d, or 50% of normal capacity. Because of the lack of easy access to where the pipeline leaked, the refinery has yet to estimate a restart date for the hydrotreating and hydrogen units.

Braskem's (NYSE:BAK) (Camacari, Brazil) Copesul Petrochemical Complex was also affected; however, the complex can also generate power from coal, oil, liquefied petroleum gas and diesel. A decision was made to buy power to substitute natural gas. The Ipiranga refinery, owned by a consortium formed by Braskem, Grupo Ultra and Petrobras, in Rio Grande do Sul State and Petrobras' Repar refinery in Parana State were not affected.

View Plant Profile - 1045462 1063110 1040678

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.