The valve that connects the 437-kilometer gas pipeline that connects Aldea Brasilera (Argentina) with Uruguaiana (Brazil) remained closed since 2015 and until this Sunday, February 14, Argentine gas had been absent in Brazilian territory.
The commissioning of CTU, which belongs to the company SAESA, allows exporting up to 2.4 million cubic meters of gas natural per day, when that gas is not necessary to supply local demand. Each day of operation of CTU implies for Argentina an income of foreign currency of up to 500,000 dollars. And a potential income of more than 100 million dollars a year if it were only exported outside the winter, a period in which gas is necessary to cover local demand.
The electrical energy generated by the Uruguaiana Thermal Power Plant is of strategic importance for southern Brazil, since it provides support at competitive costs to a system highly dependent on hydroelectricity and highly affected by the droughts caused by the La Niña phenomenon.
The commissioning of CTU, which has an installed capacity of 640 MW and uses 2.4 million cubic meters of natural gas per day when operating at full capacity, is an auspicious precedent for both Argentine gas exports and the possibility of having a competitive supply of power and energy in southern Brazil.
The export of surplus Argentine gas is provisional and it is estimated that this process will only be able to consolidate in the coming months, once the winter has passed and the Gas Plan begins to give the expected results, which will allow our country to start on the road towards self-sufficiency, with the possibility of making firm exports to Chile, Uruguay and Brazil.
–
