Petrobras to build ethanol export pipeline

Brazils state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras announced that it would begin building ethanol export pipelines following the completion of a feasibility study. Construction of the pipelines, known as the Ethanol Export Corridor, will begin within a few months and the network will be ready for use in 2010 or 2011, said Marcelino Guedes Gomes, director of ducts and terminals at Petrobras transportation subsidiary Transpetro. One of the pipelines will link sugar producers in the western central regions to the ports of Santos and Paranagua, in the coastal states of Sao Paulo and Parana. Another pipeline will link Parana to Ciuaba to transport gasoline and fuel oil from Parana refineries to sugarcane producers. The whole system will have a 12 million cubic meter (cbm) capacity. The ethanol pipelines will cost US$1.1 billion, while the fuel lines will cost US$2.4 billion. (May 23, 2007)