Cruz del Sur pipeline is a natural gas pipeline linking Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 with Colonia del Sacramento

Colonia del Sacramento

Colonia del Sacramento is a city in southwestern Uruguay, by the Río de la Plata, facing Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the oldest town in Uruguay and capital of the departamento of Colonia. It has a population of around 22,000.It is renowned for its historic quarter, a World Heritage Site...

 and Montevideo

Montevideo

Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

 in Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

.

History

Construction of the pipeline started in March 2001. The pipeline was completed in November 2002 and it was inaugurated by the presidents of Uruguay and Argentina, Jorge Batlle Ibáñez

Jorge Batlle Ibáñez

Jorge Luis Batlle Ibáñez is a politician from Uruguay, a member of the Colorado Party. He served as the President of Uruguay from 2000 to 2005....

 and Eduardo Duhalde

Eduardo Duhalde

-External links:...

 on 29 November 2002 in Montevideo.

Technical description

The pipeline is 215 kilometres (133.6 mi) long and it has capacity of 1.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. It cost US$150 millions.

The offshore section between Punta Lara (Argentina) and Santa Ana (Uruguay) across of the River Plate

Río de la Plata

The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...

, is 57 kilometres (35.4 mi) long. It has a diameter of 24 inches (609.6 mm) and a maximum pressure of 95 bars (9,500,000 Pa). The Uruguayan section is 145 kilometres (90.1 mi) long and has a maximum pressure of 80 bars (8,000,000 Pa).

The pipeline is supplied from the gas fields in the Neuquén Basin

Neuquén Province

Neuquén is a province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west...

.

Operator

It operated by Gasoducto Cruz del Sur S.A. and owned by consortium of BG Group

BG Group

BG Group plc is a global oil and gas company headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom. It has operations in 25 countries across Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America and South America and produces around 680,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. It has a major Liquefied Natural Gas ...

 (40%), Pan American Energy (30%), ANCAP

ANCAP (Uruguay)

ANCAP is a state-owned company in Uruguay. It is involved in the production of petroleum products, Portland cement and alcoholic beverages. It operates the Uruguay's single oil refinery at La Teja with capacity of per day...

 (20%) and Wintershall

Wintershall

Wintershall AG is the largest crude oil and natural gas producer in Germany. The company is based in Kassel, Germany. Wintershall is a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF, based in Ludwigshafen. The name Wintershall is derived from the surname of the enterprise co-founder Carl Julius Winter and the...

 (10%).

Proposed expansion

There is a proposal to prolong the pipeline to southern Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. The spur line would start in Colonia, Uruguay, and end in Porto Alegre

Porto Alegre

Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...

, Brazil. 415 kilometres (257.9 mi) would be laid in Uruguay and 505 kilometres (313.8 mi) in Brazil. In Rio Grande do Sul, it would be linked with the GASBOL pipeline

GASBOL

The Bolivia-Brazil pipeline is the longest natural gas pipeline in South America. The long pipeline connects Bolivia's gas sources with the south-east regions of Brazil....

.

External links

• Gasoducto Cruz del Sur S.A.