BOLIVIA/ARGENTINA |
Gas pipeline. Bolivia's President Evo Morales and Argentina's Cristina Fernández last week inaugurated the Juana Azurduy gas pipeline (GIJA) in Bolivia's Yacuiba province. The new pipeline, which stretches 48km, of which 13km lies in Bolivian territory, will allow Bolivia to boost gas exports to Argentina (Bolivia's second biggest market after Brazil) from the current maximum of 7.7m cubic metres/day (cmpd) to 11.3m cmpd. First proposed in 2006 by Morales and Fernández's late husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner and formalised in a 2010 agreement, the pipeline is the first stage of a plan to boost Bolivia's gas exports to Argentina to 27.7m cmpd by 2026 through linking up with Argentina's planned north-east pipeline (GNEA). The need to increase exports to Argentina follows Brazil's announcement in late March that it was planning to cut its contracted imports to 24m cmpd, from the current 30.5cmpd, from 2015.
The new pipeline is part of Morales' priority of improving infrastructure following the long-awaited April 2011 report revealing that Bolivia's proven gas reserves were 9.94 trillion cubic feet (TCF), lower than the 26.7TCF reported in 2005 [
WR-11-16]. The report had raised questions over Bolivia's ability to meet these export commitments. Natural gas exports to Brazil and Argentina increased 42.19% in 2010, to US$2.8bn, of which US$2.3bn went to Brazil.
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