29-08-02 Natural gas will make up 10 % of Brazil's energy mix by 2005, Petrobras technology manager Maria das Gracas Pena Silva said in a presentation to the Powergen conference in Mexico. By that date, power generation will make up 57 % of natural gas demand, the industrial sector 33 %, automobiles 6 %, petrochemicals 2 %, steel 1 % an the residential sector 1 %, she detailed.
Petrobras has 26 bn cm of proven natural gas reserves and is stepping up its present production level of 36 mm cmpd. The company is also investment to improve its transport infrastructure, she said.
Petrobras will own 100 % of the gas carried by the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline from 2003. The company is currently ramping up to full capacity of 30 mm cmpd. Three compression stations will be ready in January 2003, and a further five that will be ready in June 2003, Silva said.

In the southeast, scheduled investment is $ 500 mm to build 800 km of new pipelines, and in the northeast Petrobras will spend $ 400 mm to add 415 km to the Nordestao pipeline, doubling capacity to 24 mm cmpd. In the south, Petrobras expects to increase capacity by 5 mm cmpd by end-2003 with the completion of the TSB line between Uruguaiana on the Argentine border and Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul state.
Petrobras' natural gas distribution network came to 7,390 km in 2002, which it plans to expand to 11,260 km by 2005, Silva said.