It will benefit some 12,000 homes, hospitals and schools in 25 locations in Neuquén, including Villa la Angostura, Río Negro and Chubut. The work will increase transportation capacity by 300,000 cubic meters per day.
This Friday, the signing of the framework agreement was carried out between the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro and Chubut, the National Energy Secretariat and various national entities, for the expansion of the mountain gas pipeline. The works will increase the transportation of the current pipeline from 1,200,000 cubic meters to 1,500,000 cubic meters per day.
The agreement was reached by the governors of Neuquén, Rolando Figueroa, Río Negro, Alberto Weretilneck, and Chubut, Ignacio Torres, together with the Secretary of Energy of the Nation, Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo, the controller of the National Gas Regulatory Entity (Energas), Carlos Casares, the representative of Energía Argentina SA, Daniel Álvarez, and the president of Camuzzi Gas del Sur, Jaime Javier Barba.
It aims to promote and complete the completion, commissioning and enabling of the expansion of the transportation capacity of the Patagonian Gas Pipeline, through the installation of a new Compressor Plant in Río Senguer and the installation of a Back-Up motor-compressor equipment, in the existing Gobernador Costa Compressor Plant, in the Province of Chubut.
If this increase in transportation capacity is realized, and by entering the additional daily volume of 300,000 cubic meters per day from the Zorro Field, they will be able to eliminate the current restrictions in the Cordilleran-Patagonian system. Currently the system supplies about 25 cities in the provinces, but for several years it has been saturated and its expansion is imperative so that more homes can access the natural gas service through networks.
As a result of the completion, start-up and enabling of the work, some 12,000 homes will benefit, enabling them to access an essential service given the geographical and topographic conditions where these communities are developed. Additionally, the Compressor Plant Expansion-Assembly work will also allow gas to be supplied through networks to schools, hospitals and public agencies, which today do not have this essential service.
The agreement established the schedule of works and disbursements, where the works will be financed by the provinces as follows: the province of Río Negro 50%, the province of Chubut 25% and the province of Neuquén 25%. The Province of Neuquén and the Province of Chubut will disburse, first, simultaneously and in equal parts, 50% (fifty percent) of the total budget. Then, the Province of Río Negro will proceed to disburse the remaining 50% (fifty percent) of the funds required by the budget for the conclusion of the Compressor Plant Expansion-Assembly Work.
