Agência Brasil*
Rio de Janeiro – The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) announced yesterday (12th) that it has approved a funding of 2.49 billion reals (US$ 1.41 billion) for building the Coari–Manaus natural gas transport pipeline, owned by Petrobras, in the northern Brazilian state of Amazonas. The funding is one of the actions forecast by the Growth Acceleration Programme (PAC), launched on January this year by the federal government.
The funding will benefit Transportadora Urucu Manaus, a society that was established with the specific purpose of implementing the project. The pipeline will have 383 kilometres. According to the BNDES, also to be built are nine natural gas distribution branches, aiming to cater to seven municipalities in the state of Amazonas along the length of the pipeline.
The Coari–Manaus pipeline will have a daily transport capacity of 5.5 million cubic metres, which can be expanded to up to 10 million daily cubic metres according to the development of the market.
According to Petrobras, the natural gas will be initially used by a thermoelectric plant in Manaus for power generation purposes. At a later stage, the product should be supplied to the industrial, commercial and residential sectors in the region. The project should create 36,000 job positions, of which 9,000 will be direct jobs.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
