Aiming to leverage their huge natural gas reserves, left-leaning leaders across South America are in serious talks to build a network of pipelines stretching thousands of kilometers to feed growing demand and wean themselves from US economic influence.
But oil industry experts say their show of brotherhood may backfire if this expensive pipe dream becomes reality, since the network could turn the continent's neighbors against each other as they compete for clients.
In Brasilia on Thursday, the presidents of Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela discussed plans for an 8,000km pipeline from Caracas to Buenos Aires through Brazil's Amazon rain forest, complete with links to Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.
"This pipeline is vital for us," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said, stressing it would distance the region from the US-backed free market policies known as the Washington Consensus.
The pipeline, which would cost US$20 billion and could be built within five to seven years, "is the beginning of the South American consensus," Chavez said.
Silva and Kirchner did not speak to reporters after the leaders' five-hour meeting, but instructed their energy ministers to give priority to the project.
The leaders also agreed to meet in Argentina in March to review technical plans being prepared by the three nations' state-owned oil companies.
Venezuela and Bolivia have the first and second largest natural gas reserves in South America, an amount that Chavez said will last two centuries even with increased production in Brazil and Argentina, where demand is increasing for the fuel for power generation, cooking gas and cars.
But the pipeline could put Bolivia and Venezuela on an economic collision course, because Bolivia is already the biggest exporter of gas to Brazil and wants to increase exports to Argentina through another, much shorter, proposed pipeline.
By joining the much larger pipeline, Bolivia "would be tying their production prospects to whatever Chavez wants to dictate," said Andres Stepkowski, a Bolivia-based oil industry consultant.
Chavez said the nations don't want to compete, adding he believes there isn't "any fear in Bolivia, rather there's joy that this project is going to integrate us all, you wait and see."
In keeping with Chavez' socialist vision of reducing the US' "imperialist" political and economic influence, the larger pipeline would be built and operated jointly by Venezuela's state company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA and Brazil's state-owned petrol company, Petroleo Brasileiro SA.
Chavez said each country would pay a share of the construction cost though the exact amount will not be determined until the March summit in Argentina. However, he suggested that the nations would not pay the full bill and that outside investment would be needed.
Some Chinese companies have already expressed interest, Chavez said, and he predicted additional investment won't be hard to find. The project could pay for itself five to eight years after being completed, he said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the