Brenco is going to build US$ 1 billion alcohol pipeline
O Estado de S. Paulo - 04/23/2008
The Brazilian Company of Renewable Energy (Brenco) presented the Ibama and the National Oil Agency (ANP) a request for the authorization for the construction of a 1.12 thousand kilometer alcohol pipeline connecting the municipality of Alto Taquari (MT) to the port of Santos. Added to the construction of six terminals for the collection and delivery of alcohol along the course, the project is budget at US$ 1 billion. The main executive of the company, former Petrobrás president Henri Philippe Reichstul, confirmed the enterprise last week in Alto Taquari, when he inaugurated part of the works of the first ethanol plant, from of total of ten plants that the company is bulding. This first plant will receive investments of R$ 450 million (US$ 257.1 million) to process 3 million tons of sugar cane and to produce 275 million liters of alcohol starting on the 2009 harvest. The ten plants will have the capacity for 3.7 billion liters. As for the alcohol pipeline, it will have the capacity to transport 4 billion liters, therefore being capable of meeting the logistics need of other producers of the area interested in exporting. Brenco's terminals should be installed in the municipalities of Alto Taquari, Costa Rica (MS), Paranaíba (GO), São José do Rio Preto and Paulínia (SP), in addition to the exportation terminal in Santos. According to Brenco's director Rogério Manso, the project will not be a competitor for the alcohol pipelines that Petrobrás intends to install in paths linking the State of Goiás to Paulínia and later to Rio de Janeiro, and Mato Grosso to the terminal of Paranaguá. 'They are completely different projects. We will be entering through Southwest of the State of São Paulo, while Petrobras' will enter though the Northeast. We will drain the production through Santos, and Petrobrás through two other terminals. However, Brenco does not rule out a partnership with the State company. The company searches for partners in the market for the construction of the alcohol pipeline. Petrobrás informed that it did not have any contact with Brenco and that the only two projects of alcohol pipeline already confirmed in its budget are those connecting Senador Canedo to Paulínia, in a partnership with Mistui and Camargo Correa, and another one that is going to cross the state of Paraná, in a partnership with the local government.