Northeast Argentina Gas Pipeline

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The Northeast Argentina Gas Pipeline, also known by its Spanish name Gasoducto del Noreste Argentino or by its Spanish initials GNEA, is a natural gas pipeline in Argentina.

Location

Starting from a junction with the Juana Azurduy Gas Pipeline in Campo Durán (Salta province), the GNEA pipeline was originally projected to run southeast through Salta and Formosa provinces to the city of Formosa, then turn south to parallel Argentina's national highway 11, passing through Resistencia in Chaco province, briefly jogging southwest between Reconquista and Vera (Santa Fé province), and finally resuming its southward trajectory to Santo Tomé in Santa Fé province.

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Project Details: Southern Segment

• Operator: TGN
• Parent Company: Enarsa - Energía Argentina SA (formerly IEASA)
• Capacity: 4.09 bcm/y (11.2 MMm³/d)
• Length: 694 km / 431 miles
• Diameter: 24 inches
• Status: Operating
• Start Year: 2019

Project Details: Northern Segment

• Operator: Enarsa - Energía Argentina SA (formerly IEASA)
• Parent Company: Enarsa - Energía Argentina SA (formerly IEASA)
• Proposed capacity: 4.09 bcm/y (11.2 MMm³/d)
• Length: 813 km / 505 miles
• Diameter: 24 inches
• Status: Construction
• Start Year:

Background

The Northeast Argentina Gas Pipeline was originally designed to transport natural gas from Bolivia to northeastern Argentina. The project was announced in 2003, with construction scheduled to start in 2007, and the pipeline scheduled to go online in 2010. Over the next decade and a half, the GNEA project was plagued by repeated delays and cost overruns, and the pipeline remained only partially finished as of June 2022.

Initial estimates called for the pipeline to have a capacity of 20 million cubic meters per day (20 MMm³/d), expandable to 30 MMm³/d; however, more recent reports have placed the capacity at 11.2 MMm³/d.

Construction of the pipeline finally got underway in February 2015. In May 2017 it was reported that Enarsa would finish construction of the final 100 km of the pipeline, spanning the border between Salta and Formosa provinces, by December 2017 or January 2018. At the same time Enarsa's President Hugo Balboa stated that the company could not guarantee operation of the pipeline in the future due to insufficient demand in the provinces of Formosa and Chaco, Argentina. As of September 2017, construction on the pipeline was reportedly 90% complete.

In September 2018 the Argentine government announced that the scope of the pipeline had been scaled back to include only the southern segment running from Santo Tomé (Santa Fe province) to the Bermejo River (Chaco province). Among the government's stated reasons for scaling back the project were financial irregularities that occurred during the administration of President Cristina Kirchner, and the possibility of supplying gas from Argentina's Vaca Muerta field, which would reduce the need to import gas from Bolivia.

Southern Segment (Santa Fé & Chaco provinces)

In July 2019 it was reported that the pipeline's southern segment would begin operating in September 2019, after the Argentine government awarded TGN (Transportadora de Gas del Norte) rights to operate and maintain the completed sections of the pipeline in Santa Fé and Chaco provinces for a period of 10 years; the cost of building the pipeline was reported at US2.3 billion, nearly double early estimates.

In October 2019, it was announced that the pipeline had begun supplying 3000 homes in San Cristóbal, Santa Fé province, with 25 additional communities in the province scheduled to be connected.

The section of the main pipeline operated by TGN has a diameter of 24 inches (610 mm) and extends for 694 km through the two provinces, with 4- to 10-inch branches extending its scope to roughly 1000 km.

Northern segment (Formosa & Salta provinces)

In a February 2020 meeting with Formosa province governor Gildo Insfrán, Argentina's Secretary of Energy Sergio Lanziani emphasized the importance of completing remaining sections of the pipeline for the economic growth of Argentina's Northeast region. However, there were no significant developments over the next two years.

In February 2022, Argentina's Minister of Energy Darío Martínez announced that the government would hold a tender for completion of the remaining 100km of pipeline along the border between Salta and Formosa provinces. Martínez originally called for the tender to take place in March 2022, but the date was subsequently pushed back to September 2022.

In July 2022, workers soldered together two sections of pipe in the community of General Mansilla, on the border between Chaco and Formosa provinces, paving the way for gas to flow from the southern segment of the GNEA system into the northern segment. Gas transport in the northern segment was initially expected to be limited to the 100 km of pipeline between the Río Bermejo (provincial border) and the capital city of Formosa.

As of July 2024, Enarsa's website stated that a segment of the GNEA pipeline in Formosa province had been placed into service in 2024. However, it was unclear which exact section of the pipeline was operational, and what date it had been commissioned; meanwhile, the 2024 edition of the Argentine government's official pipelines map did not show any operational segment of the GNEA in Formosa province.

In June 2024, Enarsa launched a public tender for the right to operate and maintain the GNEA within Formosa province, from the Formosa-Salta provincial border to the Formosa-Chaco provincial border. Bids were to be accepted until July 25, 2024.

Proposed connection to Paraguay and Brazil

As of June 2024, the Argentine government was reportedly studying plans to connect from the GNEA in Formosa province to the proposed Argentina-Paraguay-Brazil gas pipeline, as a means of exporting fossil gas from Vaca Muerta to Brazil.

Possible extension to Corrientes and Misiones provinces

Government maps have indicated that the GNEA pipeline might eventually be expanded further northeast into the provinces of Corrientes and Misiones. However, details remain sketchy, and any such expansion would first require completion of the pipeline's northern segment in Formosa and Salta provinces.

Ownership

The pipeline is owned by Energía Argentina SA (Enarsa), formerly known as IEASA (Integración Energética Sociedad Anónima).

Articles and resources

External articles

Wikipedia also has an article on the Northeast Argentino Gas Pipeline (GASENE). This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License].