Argentina The filling of the tank began this Tuesday pipeline President Nestor Kirchner (GPNK), the key engineering work to expand production and evacuate gas from the gigantic formation of hydrocarbons unconventional from Vaca Muerta, in the southwest of the country.
“What happens today, Tuesday, June 20, is the beginning of the filling, as it is an extensive 573-kilometer gas pipeline with a significant diameter, so it takes 20 days to fill, but as of today, what is called fit to function is already there.”, specified the Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royón, in a statement released by her portfolio.
The gas pipeline crosses four provinces, from the gas treatment plant in the town of Tratayen, in the province of Neuquén, located in the heart of Dead cowpasses through Río Negro, La Pampa, to the town of Salliqueló, in the province of Buenos Aires.
This Tuesday the first valve is opened and the process of filling the gas pipeline that will take the gas from the Tratayén plant to Salliqueló begins, that is, the section from kilometer 0 to 29 is enabled.
The Ministry of Energy set a schedule for authorizations and start-up that will take around 15 days until concluding on July 9 with an inaugural act.
“It will change the life of our country”, Royón expressed, because until today Vaca Muerta had no way to evacuate production.
Vaca Muerta is the world’s second largest unconventional gas reserve.
The Argentine government estimates that the gas pipeline will allow annual savings of US$4.2 billion by replacing imports by 2024, when fully operational, saving you foreign exchange and boosting energy independence.
“This first stage will allow savings of 1,700 million Dollars”, said Royon, who foresaw that by 2024, Argentina will be able to make purchases “punctual” of liquefied natural gas for some winter consumption peaks, but “Important ship blocks are not going to be needed.”
The construction of the first stage of the gas pipeline -which was late but was completed quickly in ten months- was carried out only with resources from the National Treasury, emphasized Royón, who indicated that “the cost is recovered in two years” between what is saved from imports and subsidies.
The second stage of the gas pipeline consists of the continuation of the work to the town of San Jerónimo, in the province of Santa Fe, which would allow its link with the Gasoducto del Noreste (GNEA).
The work that is inaugurated “It is the first link in the infrastructure necessary to solve the supply logistics and arrive with gas from Vaca Muerta to the centers with the highest demand in Argentina”, pointed out a report from the Austral University, because it indicated that the second stage of the GPNK, the reversal of the Northern gas pipeline, the projects for gas liquefaction plants, petrochemicals and crude oil pipelines are still missing.
Source: EFE
Source: Gestion
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