To add value to the oil produced, Brazil will have the 1st thermoelectric plant that will use natural gas exclusively from the pre-salt layer in 2023, in the city of Macaé

The thermoelectric plant will use natural gas from the pre-salt in Macaé, which will be able to offer electricity at the same price as the hydroelectric plants in 2023.

With the water crisis and the import of electricity becoming a reality, the news of the first thermoelectric plant specialized in adding value to pre-salt oil by generating energy with natural gas, a component of these commodities abundant in Brazil, this is excellent news, especially for Macaé, which has been rising a lot with energy and social engineering projects in 2021.

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The thermoelectric plant will be installed in Macaé-RJ, and will bring more jobs and development to the area, both with its construction during the year 2022 and with its operation, from 2023.

Let's talk a little more about the project, what is expected of it and what are the future thermoelectric projects for the region, which has a lot to grow in this regard!

What do we know about this new plant so far?

The new thermoelectric plant will be called blue marlin, and was developed by the company GVA, which works in an interesting way in these undertakings. Creating a partnership with large companies for the development of thermoelectric plants in the Macaé region and then, when the plant enters the final investment decision stage, the company sells its share to other participants.

By working on this strategy, the GVA group manages to get a series of infrastructure projects off the ground that exceed its investment capabilities and maintains an interesting flow of work, by always being involved in the initial stages of the process and when the project enters the capitalization phase , the group withdraws from the business, selling its share, and moves on to the next development.

More than half of the construction has already been completed and the vast majority of the machinery needed for this thermoelectric plant is already in Brazil, which means that, if the schedule is maintained, it will be ready to operate on time.

Its total power generation capacity is 565 MW, enough to supply a city of about 2,54 million inhabitants. 

Why was the thermoelectric plant installed in Macaé?

The thermoelectric plant was installed in Macaé to take advantage of the Pre-salt natural gas, which until now was not being explored at its source. As exploration is carried out by Shell, involved in the project as one of the partners, the idea is that this undertaking will be able to produce thermoelectric energy more cheaply than the competition.

This is because with Petrobras' current policy, of parity of values ​​with the international barrel, it charges the value in dollars for the gas used for energy generation, which increases the value of the MW that this new consortium will be able to beat.

That is, this thermoelectric plant will remain active for a good part of the time because its values ​​will be more interesting, and it will, with some frequency, win the energy auctions offered by the government.

“We lowered the price (of the megawatt-hour, MWh) and we will always be called. Our energy is cheaper than that of hydroelectric plants, and the forecast is to dispatch more than 80% (of capacity)”, said Bruno Chevalier, president of Marlim Azul.