Rio de Janeiro – It should take a long time for Brazil to become self-sufficient in production of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), cooking gas, said Petrobras president José Sergio Gabrielli yesterday (8th). "It is a physical-chemical question. It is not possible for us to demand from oil more than it can give us. Therefore, I see no chance of becoming self-sufficient in the production of LPG, even in the long run," he said.
Projections by the president at Petrobras were made based on an estimate of growth of consumption of LPG of around 1.7% a year up to 2020, while residential natural gas should grow 5.4%.
"There should be natural replacement of LPG for natural gas, mainly in the main urban areas of the country, but it will still not be possible for us to produce enough for our own consumption," he said.
Gabrielli pointed out that Petrobras is investing US$ 50 billion in the construction of five new refineries and that, except for the Petrochemical Hub of Rio de Janeiro (Comperj), all should produce LPG, though at insufficient volume for the domestic market.
To the president of the Gas Distributor Union (Sindigas), Sérgio Bandeira de Mello, there are more optimistic expectations regarding LPG production. He does not believe that consumption of gas should grow enough to exceed 16 million tonnes/year in the near future, and that is the estimated Brazilian production of gas by 2030, as estimated by the Energy Researh Company (EPE).
"In our point of view, we will become self-sufficient and will become exporters of LPG, as we do not believe that demand should grow at that rate," he said.
Bandeira de Mello added that the productive capacity of the domestic market is currently 6 million tonnes/year, for consumption of 6.4 million tonnes a year, a volume that should leap to 9 million tonnes in 2020, growth of 40%.
*Translated by Mark Ament
