Uruguaiana-Porto Alegre Gas Pipeline Project Only 90% Completed

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--At the end of the 1990s, a feasibility report on a major gas-pipeline project between Argentina and Brazil, known as the Transportadora Sul Brasilera de Gas or TSB, began. Originally, the pipeline was meant to transport gas from Argentina to the Brazilian region of Porto Alegre, also supplying a 500-megawatt (MW) power plant. Only two sections of the three that compose the pipeline have been completed.

This 345-mile pipeline was divided into three different stages for construction. The first stretch is managed by TGN (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and started operating in 2000. This section runs 16 miles from Argentina's border to the Brazilian municipality of Uruguaiana, where the pipeline provides gas to the power station. Because of Argentina's internal conflicts, gas-flow is interrupted every year from May to September, and during this period the power station remains closed.

The endpoint of this first section already has the necessary accessories to allow connection to the second section. The construction of this leg, however, which was previously scheduled to begin in 2000 by Rio Grande do Sul's government and Petrobras Transporte S.A. (Transpetro), a subsidiary of Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) (Rio de Janeiro), has been postponed and removed from the priority list because of financial problems.

The third stretch also runs for 16 miles and goes from Triunfo to Canoas, where it is linked to Bolivia's gas pipeline, TBG (La Paz, Bolivia). This section has been operational since 2002 and has been managed by Sulgas, a joint venture formed by the government of Rio Grande do Sul and Transpetro.

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