July 8, 2006
Colombia President pleased with Colombia-Venezuela-Panama energy agreement

(Text of report by Colombian Office of the President website, reproduced by BBC Monitoring Americas) - "According to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez's announcement, Colombia will provide Panama with gas by barges. Uribe spoke during the ceremony to mark the beginning of the gas pipeline project, which will connect Maracaibo, in Venezuela and the Ballenas field in the Colombian La Guajira region.

The Colombian president said that he agreed with Panamanian President Martin Torrijos on the use of barges to transport gas to Panama while the Colombo-Venezuelan gas pipeline is extended to Panamanian territory.

'While this gas pipeline between Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama is being built, Colombia will provide Panama, by barges, with initial amounts of gas needed to generate energy and some for domestic use there, in accordance with Colombia's reserves and production,' Uribe Velez explained.

The president said that the supply of gas to the neighbouring country will be done urgently in view of Panama's needs to stock up on this resource and said that once the agreement becomes effective, all that remains to be done is to define the carrier and what barges will carry the fuel.

'We will do this with a sense of urgency. Panama has told us: I need it. Colombia has said: We will deliver. All that is left now is for the technicians to define the barges and who will do the transportation,' the president said, also asking the technicians tasked with this to act quickly.

'I can well imagine many meetings between technicians and when they get together they say: it is because politicians, it is because politicians, it is because politicians, well, now we politicians are acting faster, let's not allow the technicians to fall behind. All the political resolve has been stated here and if there is anything they need, say so now so that we don't delay things,' Uribe Velez said.

In his speech, the president of the republic also highlighted the interest of Colombia, Venezuela and Panama to extend the gas pipeline to the last country.

'How much does the gas pipeline help our sister country, the Republic of Panama, to have gas or Venezuela's large reserves that will eventually increase in Colombia! How much does the gas pipeline serve for domestic use, to generate power, for its industrial projects!' stressed Uribe Velez" (...)

The Colombian president also proposed the integration of the Colombian and Venezuelan state-owned enterprises, Ecopetrol and PDVSA (Venezuelan Petroleum, Inc.), respectively, so that they jointly develop projects in both countries and even in other nations.

'My suggestion is very respectful: define a production or exploration project in Colombia, another in Venezuela, and another in a third country and carry out a strategic alliance,' Uribe Velez said.

Uribe suggested that both companies could develop the projects within this strategic alliance, under a modality of shared risk, which could be the first step towards a greater integration of the region.

'Let's do it, and the day we see those projects in operation, we will be able to say that there is a 'Petroamerica' modality - as President Chávez has suggested - in full force,' Uribe Velez stated".