The intention of Cosan to increase investments in the natural gas market goes beyond the interest in acquiring new distributors. While studying the separation of business from the creation of a new company, Gas Distribution Shares, which will control the Comgás and will be responsible for future investments in the sector, Cosan also assesses enter drainage infrastructure projects and already internally sews a investment in a pipeline to transport the pre-salt gas to Sao Paulo.
The project also takes his first steps and is kept secret by the company. The value found, however, that Cosan, through Rumo Logística, as was received at the enterprise licensing process in the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA). The pipeline was recorded as System Delivery and Treatment of Gas Natural’s Pre-Salt Pole of the Santos Basin, but has been baptized in the market informally as Route 4.
According to the Energy Secretary of São Paulo, Marco Antonio Mroz, the company is looking for partners interested in forming consortium, including large consumers. “There is the possibility of large consumers invest in the pipeline,” said the secretary.
The estimate, according to Mroz, is that the pipeline requires investments of R $ 6 billion and has the capacity to transport about 15 million cubic meters of gas. The goal is to meet oil needs that without proper infrastructure, still lack monetization plans for their future productions. The initiative would allow the entry of new suppliers in a market dominated by Petrobras.
According to a study by EY (formerly Ernst & Young), in partnership with Gas Energy, the market should become less concentrated by 2020, when Petrobras’s participation in the national gas supply should reach 75%. Currently, this percentage is over 90%, according to the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP).
The expectation EY / Gas Energy is that private producers operating in the pre-salt, such as Shell, Total, Repsol Sinopec and Petrogal, available to the market about 20 million m3 / day in 2020 – enough volume to more than double the current São Paulo market of natural gas. No own pipelines, these companies currently market their gas volumes with Petrobras.
“We believe there is room for the entry of new players in the market. There is a latent demand that have not yet developed. Gas consumption in the industry is stagnant for seven years. The industry does not have access to new gas volumes and there is a huge market capacity to absorb this new gas, “says Marco Tavares consultant of Gas Energy.
According to Carlos Assis, Energy Centre socio-leader and Natural Resources EY, there are already foreign investors interested in the Brazilian gas market, but the entry of these agents depends on regulatory developments.
“This move will be made in so far as the regulatory issue is being cleared and there is a direction of energy policy for gas. Brazil has favorable attributes for a competition scenario. Compared to other producing countries have a stable democracy, strong institutions, a relatively stable economy, growth potential in the domestic market. If destravarmos our market, we will leverage the potential of natural gas in the country, “opined Assisi.
The entry of new investors in the construction of pipelines, however, is not a simple task. Cosan’s initiative on Route 4 is not the first attempt to try to facilitate a flow pipeline of new producers in the pre-salt.
The project came to enter the agenda of oil, but not advanced on the inherent difficulties. “There was some preliminary conversations between some companies, but not advanced. There are very great difficulties to make the project viable. Besides the large cost for installation of pipeline, there is a great difficulty with the timing of project development. Often there is the entrance to the wedding in operating them and have spare capacity, undermines the viability of the investment and depreciation of the pipeline, “said an executive of a multinational oil company.
The source said further that the distances between the pre-salt fields are very large, sometimes more than 100 kilometers, which brings prohibitive costs for the project.
Still, private investment in infrastructure in the gas market begins to take its first steps in the country. The Excelerate Energy, for example, has a pre-agreement with the Bolognesi group to build two regasification terminals (that convert liquefied natural gas natural gas), the ports of Suape (PE) and Rio Grande (RS).
To encourage the entry of new “players” in the marketing of gas, the government of São Paulo wants to create demand and, therefore, will propose that the three natural state gas distributors (Comgás, Gas Natural Fenosa and Gas Brasiliano) invest about R $ 6 billion in network expansion over the next five years. The proposal will be further evaluated by the Regulatory Agency for Sanitation and Energy of São Paulo (Arsesp) during the tariff review processes of dealers, expected to be completed in 2015.
