The Secretary of Energy, Darío Martínez, announced that in March the section corresponding to the province of Salta of the Argentine Northeast Gas Pipeline (GNEA) will be tendered and awarded, within the framework of his participation in the 8th Assembly of Governors of the Great Argentine North.
The play will allow the completion of a 100-kilometre section of the total 1,500-kilometre trunk pipelines of the project started in 2007, which was paralyzed and reduced in scope during the Cambiemos government.
The completion of the laying -in a border section between Salta and Formosa- is part of the Transport.Ar gas pipeline plan and foresees an investment of US$ 150 million.
Martínez pointed out that “in March the Salta section is tendered and awarded; In April, Formosa was already connected and stage three of the GNEA was in the budget that was not voted on (in the National Congress), but even so, the Secretary of Energy advanced in the creation of the Transport National Production program”.
In this sense, he indicated that in this program, “in addition to including stage three of the GNEA, what begins is the path for the DNU that is soon to be signed by the president for the tender through IEASA for the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline” .
The work “will allow, first, to resolve Bolivia’s decline in terms of gas supply for the northern part of the country.”
It is that the gas pipeline had the initial idea of promoting the supply of natural gas from Bolivia to the provinces of Northeast Argentina (Chaco, Formosa, Corrientes, Misiones, Entre Ríos and north of Santa Fe).
The suspension of the work during the Cambiemos administration, when only 100 kilometers of pipe laying were missing, and the supply problems from Bolivia, forced them to rethink their objectives, which explains the works recently announced by the national government.
The alternative today is to use the gas pipeline in the opposite direction, which will allow gas from the Neuquén Basin to be injected and taken to Campo Durán in Salta, to then continue transport through the North Gas Pipeline.
Nowadays, the GNEA is partially in serviceand at the end of the 100 kilometers of missing trunk section, and with the expansion of compression, the demands of Santa Fe, Chaco, Formosa and Salta will be covered, using the connection to the San Jerónimo-Santa Fe gas pipeline.
Martinez explained that The objective of the National Production Transport plan is “to definitively stop importing LNG in Argentinastop burning fuel to generate electricity in Argentina and replace it with Argentine gas produced by Argentine workers, Argentine SMEs that join the value chain”.
“Above all things, arriving in the winter of 2023 to resolve the strong decline that Bolivia is experiencing and that it is necessary to resolve it with Vaca Muerta production. That is the spirit and the horizon”, remarked the Secretary.
He also stated that “if the Brazilian government also makes an investment and a gas pipeline in its territory, it will also be able to export as it will allow us to export to Chile in a countercyclical way.”
