The Trans-Caribbean gas pipeline (also known as the '' Antonio Ricaurte Gas Pipeline'') is a natural gas pipeline between Venezuela and

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

with proposed extension to Panama and probably to Nicaragua.

History

The construction started on 8 July 2006 with presence of presidents

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...

of Venezuela, Álvaro Uribe of Colombia and

Martín Torrijos Martín Erasto Torrijos Espino (; born July 18, 1963) is a Panamanian politician who was President of Panama from 2004 to 2009. He was fathered out of wedlock by Panamanian military ruler Omar Torrijos, the ''de facto'' head of Panama from 1968 ...

of Panama. It was inaugurated on 12 October 2007. In November 2009, Colombia reduced exports from 220 million cubic feet a day to 70 million cubic feet a day due to a drought that required an increase of gas-fired power generation to support the decrease in hydro-power plants' reservoirs. On 9 October 2013, the pipeline was attacked, temporarily suspending the supply of natural gas from Colombia to Venezuela. The attack was attributed to FARC rebels. From May 2014 to February 2015, Colombia again suspended gas exports through the pipeline due to drought. When the gas exports resumed, Colombia exported an estimated 50 million cubic feet a day, about half the amount that was exported before May 2014. On 11 June 2015,

Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA, ) (English: Petroleum of Venezuela) is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as exploration and production ...

(PdV) announced that it would not renew the contract to import gas from Colombia, letting the contract expire on 30 June. As a result, the current pipeline is not in use.

Description

The first stage of the pipeline is long and it runs from

Maracaibo ) , motto = "''Muy noble y leal''"(English: "Very noble and loyal") , anthem = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_alt = ...

in the state of Zulia in Venezuela to Puerto Ballena gas fields in La Guajira, Colombia. At the first stage, the pipeline pumps natural gas from Colombia to Venezuela. Transported gas is used by

for injection in its oil reservoirs to boost oil production. Natural gas is supplied by

Ecopetrol Ecopetrol, formerly known as Empresa Colombiana de Petróleos S.A. ( en, Colombian Petroleum Co.) is the largest and primary petroleum company in Colombia. As a result of its continuous growth, Ecopetrol forms part of the Fortune Global 500 and w ...

and

Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...

. The construction of the first stage cost US$467 million. Its maximum capacity is 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.

Operator

The operator of the pipeline is Petróleos de Venezuela. The original plan of the pipeline was for Colombia to pump gas to Venezuela until 2011, when the direction of the pipeline would be reversed, allowing Venezuela to export gas to Colombia. The reversal of the pipeline was delayed by PdV multiple times, with the most recent date as December 2016. The plan to reverse the pipeline never occurred due to PdV's financial troubles.

References

{{Reflist Energy infrastructure completed in 2007 Natural gas pipelines in Venezuela Natural gas pipelines in Colombia Natural gas pipelines in Panama Natural gas pipelines in Nicaragua Union of South American Nations Chevron Corporation Energy in the Caribbean Colombia–Panama relations Colombia–Venezuela relations PDVSA

History

Description

Operator

See also

References