Uruguay plans to pitch a natural gas pipeline through its territory to investors and neighbouring governments that would link Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale deposit with Brazil, Industry & Energy Minister Fernanda Cardona said in an interview.
Cardona’s mMnistry recently submitted a report including a potential pipeline route and gas demand to President Yamandú Orsi that will guide negotiations with a view to start construction by 2030, said Cardona, who declined to provide further details about the document.
“This was one of the issues that President Orsi took up the same month he started his term,” in March, Cardona said in an interview in Montevideo.
She added that Uruguay’s political stability, proximity to Brazil and existing gas pipelines with Argentina make it an attractive option that would complement other proposals. Cardona also visited Vaca Muerta earlier this year to gauge interest.
Despite its stability and wealth, Uruguay is relatively late to the race to channel the growing volumes of natural gas from Vaca Muerta shale formation to industrial buyers in Brazil. Competing options include upgrading an existing pipeline that runs through crisis-prone Bolivia or building a pipeline directly to Brazil or through Paraguay.
Paraguay, a landlocked country of 6.1 million people about the size of California, is already lobbying Argentina and Brazil to back a US$1.9-billion pipeline across its territory. Paraguay and Argentina signed a memorandum of understanding to evaluate that proposal in July.
Uruguay could use some of the gas from a potential pipeline to power its industry, Cardona said.
Argentina’s gas riches “will be enough to supply other countries. We need to think ahead in a timely way so that if that happens Uruguay can also benefit,” she said.
by Ken Parks, Bloomberg
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