This Monday (23/01), Lula (PT), said that his government will "create the conditions" for financing, through the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline, in Argentina . The country promises cheap gas. 

Argentines seek funding from the BNDES for its second stretch of the project – which will expand the outflow of unconventional reserves from the Dead cow, located in Neuquén, near Santa Fe. 

This pipeline will allow the neighboring country to substitute gas imports from Bolivia and, with all this, open up space for the export of Vaca Muerta resources to the south of Brazil. 

Lula, in his speech, reaffirmed his intention to resume the role of the BNDES as the financier of engineering projects in neighboring countries. 

“That's what larger countries have to do with countries with smaller conditions at certain historical moments. From time to time, in Brazil, we are criticized for its sheer ignorance, by people who think that there cannot be funding for other countries. I think that not only can, but that it is necessary for Brazil to help all its partners. That is what we are going to do, within the economic possibilities of our country”, completed Lula.

Sergio Massa, the Minister of Economy of Argentina, said that in the first week of February a team from the Banco de la Nación and the portfolio will travel to Brazil. On the agenda, energy integration between the countries, in particular the second section of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline. 

The minister defended that the two countries are facing an “enormous opportunity”. “Brazil has access to cheaper gas than I buy from Bolivia; and Argentina to open a market with volumes that until now could only be dispatched to Central Energética Uruguaiana or to Chile – in periods that are not peak”, said Sergio Massa, in a press conference with the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad . 

Sergio also said that this first section of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline is expected to be inaugurated on June 20 and that, between the months of March and April, the second section of the gas pipeline will be auctioned. 

“At the same time, there are two works in the project: the TGN (Transportadora de Gás del Norte) and a connection work from the Salliqueló-San Jerónimo gas pipeline to the gas pipeline to the north. What is the purpose of these works? Basically start preparing the ground to supply Brazil with gas”, said the minister.

Brazil-Argentina Integration

The undertaking of Transportadora Sulbrasileira de Gás (TSB) was divided into three sections, but only the extremes were executed, in the beginning of the year 2000: the section that connects the Petrochemical Complex of Triunfo (RS) to Porto Alegre, where the Bolivia-Bolivia Gas Pipeline ends Brazil (Gasbol); and the stretch between Uruguaiana and the Transportadora de Gás del Mercosur (TGM) network, in Argentina. 

The final section of this project would actually allow the connection of Argentine gas to the network that was integrated in a gas pipeline in Brazil, which was never feasible from an economic point of view.