March 23, 2006
Petrobras chief supports trans-continent gas pipeline

(Mercosur) - "The director of the Brazilian government owned gas and energy agency Petrobras, Ildo Sauer, said that Venezuela has enough gas and that the project could achieve the financial unification of the subcontinent.

'The project is a great idea' Sauer said at a petroleum industry event in Rio do Janeiro, according to the state news service Agencia Brasil.

Energy experts inside and outside Brazil have severely questioned the 'Pharaonic' project intended to ship 200 million cubic meters of Venezuelan natural gas per day to the extreme south of the continent through a pipeline 8,000 kilometers long.

The Brazilian government estimates that the project under assessment by experts from the three countries would cost between 15 and 23 billion US dollars.

'Whoever says the gas pipeline is unviable has the math wrong or doesn't know the gas industry and its fundamentals', said Sauer pointed out Agencia Brasil.

He underlined Siberian gas is pumped more than 8,000 kilometers to supply Europe with similar volumes of gas and in conditions much more difficult than those in South America (...)".