From the Newsroom
São Paulo -Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras announced yesterday (16) the establishment of a joint venture with White Martins for the distribution of natural gas. According to information provided by the Brazilian oil company, gas will be traded in a new form for Brazil, LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas), to supply regions that are not serviced by pipelines. Initial investment in the business, according to Petrobras, will be US$ 38 million.
Petrobras believes the new enterprise will make it possible to reduce import of LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas), the gas traditionally used in gas cylinders in the country, and of diesel oil. Apart from that, according to the company, the joint venture will bring benefits with the internal dissemination of natural gas, with more competitive prices, and with a reduction in pollutant emission. This, believes Petrobras, will help open new markets for the product, ease fuel conversion in light and heavy vehicles, and may generate new jobs.
LNG will be produced by a White Martins factory in Paulínia, interior of the southeastern state of São Paulo, with a capacity for liquefying up to 380,000 cubic metres of natural gas per day, to supply, according to Petrobras, distributors, industries, and vehicular natural gas (VNG) stations in São Paulo, in southern Paraná, and centre-western Goiás and Brasília.
Still according to the state-owned company, the project is part of its program to spread natural gas use, and creation of the joint venture has already been presented to the Administrative Council for Economic Defence (Cade), an organization connected to the Justice Ministry responsible for repression of infractions against economic order, based on the constitutional rights for liberty for initiatives, free competition, social property function, consumer defence, and repression of abuse of economic power.
