Route 4b Gas Pipeline

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The Route 4b Gas Pipeline is a proposed natural gas pipeline off the Atlantic coast of southeastern Brazil.

Location

The proposed offshore pipeline would run north from the Carcará oil and gas field in the Santos Basin to the Port of Itaguaí in Rio de Janeiro state.

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Project Details

• Operator: Rota 4 Participações
• Parent Company: Cosan S.A.
• Proposed capacity: 20 million cubic meters per day, 7.3 billion cubic meters per year
• Length: 299 km / 186 miles
• Status: Proposed
• Start Year: 2027

Background

In May 2019 Brazil's Secretary of Oil and Gas of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Márcio Félix, stated that Petrobras was considering building more pipeline networks, to be named Route 4, 5 and 6. The Route 4 project is the oldest of the three, having begun the process of environmental licensing in 2014.

The original version of the pipeline proposed by project developer Cosan, known as the Route 4 or Route 4a gas pipeline, would run from the pre-salt fields of the Santos Basin to Praia Grande and the Cubatão natural gas processing plant in São Paulo state. A second pipeline known as Route 4b would transport natural gas from the Santos pre-salt fields to the Port of Itaguaí in Rio de Janeiro state.

The Route 4b pipeline would have a diameter of 24 inches and a length of 299 km. Estimated cost for the pipeline's development is R$ 4.85 billion (4.85 billion Brazilian reais). The Route 4b project, if developed, would help create a new hub of economic development for the Baixada Fluminense region of Rio de Janeiro state.

As of November 2021, the Brazilian government's offshore gas infrastructure plan listed the Route 4b pipeline as an active project in the licensing phase.

As of November 2022, it remained unclear which version of the Route 4 pipeline (Route 4a or Route 4b) was more likely to be developed.

A June 2023 news report indicated that project developer Cosan continued to favor Route 4a to Cubatão in São Paulo state, even as the governor of Rio de Janeiro state lobbied for the potential of Route 4b to supply a future blue hydrogen industry and power plants in the Porto do Açu region. As of early 2024, the future route of the pipeline remained a subject of dispute between Rio and São Paulo states.