Viability of the Gas Pipeline Network Expansion in Brazil Available to Purchase

The energy shortage in Brazil prompted for the need of alternative and reliable energy sources that could be put into operation in a short period of time while being environmentally friendly and with flexibility to be installed around the country, taking advantage of the existing electric grid and therefore minimizing overall investments. Gas fired power plants proved to be the best selection, which covered all the requirements. The Ministry of Mines and Energy of Brazil set a program addressing initially 55 thermo power plants totaling about 20,402 MW. From this total 18,263 MW of installed power was from 49 gas fired power plants demanding gas volumes in the range of 88 MMm3/d most of this power to be available from 2001 to 2003. With this challenge, Petrobras has started to design a gas pipeline network expansion plan with investments of more than 1 billion US$ for its system alone, including new gas pipelines, new compressor and custody transfer stations and loop lines. In line with this expansion project more investments are required for the Bolivia-Brazil Gas Pipeline in Bolivia (0.2 billion US$) and Brazil (0.35 billion US$), and the new gas pipeline from Argentina to Brazil (0.25 billion US$) totaling 1.8 billion US$ of additional investments in gas pipeline expansion. All of this expansion design was based on technical and economic analysis that took into consideration the availability of gas supply from Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. This paper presents the scope of the expansion, the technical and economical assumptions and the hydraulic simulation that was used to allow an investment decision.