President Hugo Chavez and Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe inaugurated construction on Saturday of a natural gas pipeline, part of the Venezuelan leader's efforts to integrate Latin America through energy cooperation.
Chavez and Uribe were joined by Panamanian President Martin Torrijos at a military base near the border separating Venezuela and Colombia, where they gathered to watch welders solder part of the pipeline.
"This is part of a big project that will be the product of working together," said Chavez, speaking to visiting delegations, local mayors and military personnel attending the inauguration ceremony.
PHOTO: AP
Chavez and Uribe signed an agreement last November for construction of the pipeline from Colombia's la Guajira gas fields to Venezuela's Paraguana refining complex -- the country's largest -- which requires large amounts of natural gas for petroleum refining.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said construction of the pipeline by a consortium of Colombian and Venezuelan companies would cost US$335 million and would be finished by next March.
Ramirez told the three presidents that gas industry experts from Venezuela and Colombia will study possibilities for extending the pipeline to Panama.
Chavez said such an extension would make Panama and other Central American less dependent on outside sources, like the US, and reduce pressure for free-market policies.
Chavez is one of the US' most ardent critics while Uribe is Washington's staunchest ally in the region.
"I've heard President Chavez describe his dream of gas, oil and energy integration many times ... and it must become a reality," Uribe said.
"This gas pipeline is going to help the two countries. We also confide in the idea of integration with Panama. This way, we help each other advance," he added.
Initially, the 230km pipeline will send gas from La Guajira to meet Venezuela's gas consumption needs. Venezuela's state-run energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, later plans to use the pipeline to send natural gas to Colombia and to other markets by 2012 -- after increasing domestic production to meet its own needs by 2008.
The pipeline would have enough capacity for Colombia to send Venezuela, which has faced a domestic gas shortage in its western regions, 4.25 million cubic meters of gas per day.
Venezuela and Colombia also have discussed the possibility of building an oil pipeline through Colombia that would enable Venezuela -- the world's fifth-largest oil producer -- to export oil to energy-hungry nations in Asia.
PDVSA director Luis Vierma told reporters that talks were advancing on that pipeline, which would transport as much as 250,000 barrels a day of crude and other derived products.
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