Colombia and Venezuela will start building the 224 km-long planned gas pipeline linking the two countries this month, officials said recently. “The work on the two-nation gas pipeline will begin, once and for all, making one of our joint plans a reality,” Colombian Energy Minister Luis Ernesto Mejia said, according to reports from Caracas. “The technical topics are completely covered, as are the consultations needed to get an environmental license, which should be issued within a couple of weeks,” he said.
Only the issues on transport volumes and fees remain to be agreed, and those will be settled by the end of June, Mejia added.
A report released by the Colombian government has said Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela’s energy and petroleum minister, estimated that the pipeline would allow Venezuela to import 150,000 cum/d of gas in the first phase. Venezuela’s state-owned energy company Petroleos de Venezuela is building the pipeline, which will link the northern Colombian province of Guajira with the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo. The project was agreed by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez last year. Each country will invest $150 million in the new pipeline.