Argentina ties up financing for new gas pipeline

The Minister of Economy of Argentina, Sergio Massa, announced that Argentina reached an agreement with the Development Bank of Latin America (formerly the Andean Development Corporation -CAF-) for financing for 540 million dollars to accelerate energy infrastructure works that help evacuate the natural gas from Vaca Muerta and take it to Brazil. He also added that the agreement will be approved by the CAF Board of Directors in March.

These dollars will be used in the construction of the gas pipeline between the cities of La Carlota – continuation of the Central West trunk gas pipeline, operated by Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN) – and Tío Pujio in the province of Córdoba, the expansion of reversal capacity of the North Gas Pipeline (from north-south, as it is today to bring natural gas from Bolivia, to south-north to bring gas from Vaca Muerta to Brazil) and the compression plants.

With these works we will be able to supply the entire north with Vaca Muerta gas and increase the possibilities of gas export volumes to Chile and Brazil,” Massa wrote on the social network Twitter.

This week the minister said that within 60 to 90 days the tender for the second stage of the President Néstor Kirchner trunk gas pipeline -GPNK- will be launched, which will link the Vaca Muerta formation, the second shale gas (unconventional) reserve in the world, in Neuquén, to the west of the country, with the province of Santa Fe, to the east.

As El Cronista anticipated, the Government will give an extraordinary rate increase to TGN and also to Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS) so that with these revenues – which ultimately are paid by households, businesses and industries that use natural gas for network – can invest in works that contribute to the substitution of energy imports.

With these works, Argentina hopes to reverse a deficit in the energy trade balance of 5.5 billion dollars recorded in 2022 and achieve a surplus of more than 7 billion dollars in 2025, a reversal of 12.5 billion dollars in the balance in just three years.

Massa’s announcement came after a meeting with the president of the CAF, the Colombian Sergio Díaz Granados, and his vice president, the Argentine Christian Asinelli. Díaz Granados and Asinelli precisely toured together with President Alberto Fernández and his Brazilian counterpart, Lula da Silva, the exhibition “Original Peoples, Warriors of Time” by Brazilian photographer Ricardo Stuckert, exhibited at the Kirchner Cultural Center. “For CAF it is a true honor to accompany the inauguration of this photographic exhibition. We do it as part of our commitment to promote sustainable and inclusive development, and under the premise that the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean also involves the arts, culture and the visibility of historical memory”, said Díaz Granados.