Gas flow from Bolivia has been normalized

18/04/2006 - 20h21

Nielmar de Oliveira
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio – Petrobrás announced yesterday that the gas flow from Bolivia has been normalized.

At the beginning of the month, torrential rainfall caused a rupture in the gas pipeline that carried natural gas from the San Antonio field in the city of Tarija in the region known as Chaco. With the break in the pipeline, gas being transported to Brazil from Bolivia over the last 15 days fell from an average of 24 million cubic meters per day to around 21 million cubic meters.

At the same time, Petrobras was forced to reduce its supply to its own refineries and thermoelectric power plants in Bolivia. That supply has also been normalized.

In order to make the pipeline repair as fast as possible, Petrobras built a 5 kilometer temporary detour pipeline.

Translation: Allen Bennett