PMCC alcohol pipeline, led by Petrobras, attracts companies
Valor Econômico
The partnership of Petrobras with Mitsui and Camargo Corrêa in the PMCC Projetos de Transporte de Alcool S.A. company may gain new members. The PMCC was created to develop a project of logistics for the ethanol, through pipelines, from the Midwest to the South coast, on an extension of nearly one thousand kilometers. Valor found out there are companies negotiating a possible entry in the PMCC alcohol pipeline project, which foresees total investments of nearly R$ 2 billion (US$ 1.1 billion).
Petrobras confirmed that "in fact" there are several companies interested in joining the PMCC undertaking, which is equally shared by the three partners (Petrobras, Mitsui and Camargo Corrêa). PMCC is a logistics company and its role does not include the sale of ethanol. The State-owned company did not inform the names of the companies with which PMCC negotiates because it alleged there are confidentiality clauses.
The transport corridor for the ethanol from the Mid-West to the East is known inside Petrobras as System for the Drainage Through Pipelines of Alcohol and Byproducts - Sistema de Escoamento Dutoviário de Álcool e Derivados - (Seda). One of the goals of the project is to increase the export capacity via Rio de Janeiro and cater to the domestic market. The PMCC alcohol pipeline is to be implemented in stages and, when completed, will go from Paulínia, where the Refinery of Planalto (Replan) is located, to Senator Canedo (GO), covering nearly 800 kilometers. This segment will be set up in the same line of the São Paulo-Brasília multipurpose pipeline (Osbra), used for the transport of gasoline, naphtha, diesel and aviation kerosene (AK). Four ethanol collecting centers are foreseen in the line of the Osbra. Namely: Ribeirão Preto, Uberaba, Itumbiara and Senador Canedo. Another 115-kilometer pipeline will be built between Replan and Anhembi (SP). This pipeline will receive the ethanol transported by the system of pusher tugs and barges to be operated by Transpetro, a logistics subsidiary of Petrobras, in the Tietê-Paraná waterway.
Petrobras has announced the basic design of the plan of the alcohol pipeline has been completed and it is in the stage of environmental licensing - the construction has not been started yet in any segment, which depends on the licenses. The company hopes to get the preliminary license within 30 days. After its issue, the project will go into the stage of construction and acquisition of equipment. According to Petrobras, the first segment of the alcohol pipeline between Uberaba (MG) and Paulínia (SP) is planned to go into operation by the second half of 2011. This segment will allow catering to the domestic market, by means of the bases of Paulínia, Barueri and Guarulhos, and also to the foreign markets through the Ilha D'Água terminal, in Rio de Janeiro, still in 2010. Other stages of the project will be implemented later on within a schedule that goes until 2013.
The forecast is that the system operates 12.8 billion liters of ethanol a year in the Senador Canedo-Paulínia segment in the 2020/21 harvest. For the waterway, the estimate of Petrobras is that the volume gets to 9.4 billion liters of ethanol a year in ten years from now. The plan is that the product transported through the pipeline and waterway should be distributed in Paulínia, Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, Vale do Paraíba and in the maritime terminals de São Sebastião (SP) and Ilha D'Água. Petrobras exported 500 million liters of ethanol in 2009.