The chemical industry must surf the wave of opening up the natural gas market, as it is the largest energy consumer in the country
The opening of the gas market should make projects that have been on hold for years be put off the ground and, even better, attract new investments in the Petrochemicals area, since the sector has not seen an environment as propitious as this one for at least ten years.
The reason for optimism is given by the announcement of the federal government to publish measures in June to open the natural gas market.
The petrochemical sector understands the opening as a huge step forward and that this only happened due to the same line of reasoning as the ministries of Mines and Energy and the economy.
In the coming weeks, the CNPE (National Council for Energy Policy) should start taking concrete measures, such as the release of infrastructure sharing, such as the shared use of pipelines and Petrobras terminals and the prevention of cartelization of the sector, since the company buys natural gas from large distributors and sells it at a much higher price.
Another measure that should be taken, according to the executive president of the Brazilian Chemical Industry Association (Abiquim), Fernando Figueiredo, is to hold auctions as is done in the electricity sector.
Figueiredo also highlighted that by doubling the supply of natural gas by 2024, prices would be between US$3,50 and US$5 per million BTU and that the government has already confirmed this with the ministries.
perfect environment
For the president of Abiquim, the opening of the market together with other actions such as the reforms intended by the new government will be the perfect environment for the resumption of investments.
He went so far as to declare that Brazil could have two more petrochemical complexes if there is an increase in the supply of natural gas.
The forecast investments, according to the Association, for this year are US$ 600 million, US$ 400 million in 2020 and 2021 and a decrease to US$ 200 million in 2022.
These numbers are still a bit shy, if compared to 2012, when investments reached US$ 4,8 billion in a single year.
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