The gas pipeline that will link Vaca Muerta with Buenos Aires is well advanced.
The work is 85% complete
, according to calculations by Techint and Sacde, the union of companies responsible for most of the project.
There is another section, carried out by BTU, which registers a similar level of execution, according to Agustín Gerez, president of Enarsa.
The state company is the one that commissioned the construction of the gas pipeline, at
an approximate cost of US$ 2,700 million.
Tuesday afternoon was an emotional day for the construction workers.
The last truck arrived with the pipes that will go to the gas pipeline.
There were more than 9,000 transports with those huge tubes.
Techint and Sacde first joined them -in a process called double joint, where two pipes are attached- and then they are transferred to the trace.
There are
573 kilometers of pipes
that sink almost 2 meters deep.
The previous management of Kirchnerism had an
unflattering precedent
in terms of the construction of gas pipelines.
The GNEA (Northeast Argentina) began much later than projected, it took longer than estimated, pipes were lost and the work was accused of multiple irregularities, with cost overruns in relation to the original budget.
Gerez, from Enarsa, puffs up his chest and makes a difference.
“It is a work that usually would have taken between a year and a half or two years to build, but we are doing it in 9 months.
We are going to have it finished on June 20
.
And it is a sign that with work and determination, Argentines are also capable of carrying out projects like these”, he defines.
Argentina imports LNG every winter.
It is because its current infrastructure did not allow it to bring gas from Vaca Muerta, one of the largest reserves in the world.
Once the pipeline is active - in less than two months, according to the official promise -
the country will reduce external purchases of energy.
Parade of pipes that will later sink into the route of the gas pipeline.
This will generate savings of US$2.2 billion this year, which is the equivalent of 11 million cubic meters of gas per day.
The work will continue and the amount of gas that could be transferred from Vaca Muerta to the rest of the country would reach US$5 billion per year, according to Gerez.
It would be
a drastic change
for the situation to change, since fewer dollars would be needed to send abroad for gas purchases.
Argentina could be self-sufficient in gas and begin to dream of exporting it.
A robot managed by Turkish employees
At Sacde and Techint - the UTE - which is in charge of two of the three most important parts of the project - they brought an
unprecedented technology
in the country.
It's called automatic welding.
It allows the pipes to be joined inside and out in a fast process, where qualified operators help, but the work of joining the pipes is done by machines.
The teams are managed with a kind of "joystick".
Before joining them, the technology does a kind of "ultrasound" of the tubes to see if they are fit to be joined inside and out.
They detect imperfections, if any, and correct them.
They take
3D photos
to leave a testimony of what they are collecting.
A group of
45 Turkish workers
is in charge of automatic welding.
They are specialists in that task.
They have already performed this role in another Techint project in Mexico.
But they also worked doing the same thing in Saudi Arabia, Iran or Russia.
Welds.
In the construction of the Vaca Muerta gas pipeline.
In the Sacde (of Pampa Energía)-Techint consortium, they say that it was
difficult to fill positions for some positions
.
Argentina had not built gas pipelines for years and that emptied the country of qualified labor.
For the Vaca Muerta project, the builders had to resort to
workers from Chile, Bolivia and Spain
, among other countries.
“There are several gas pipelines under construction in the region.
Finding specialists is complicated”, say the companies.
A welder can earn a hand salary of between $700,000 and $900,000 per month,
plus extras.
Once the pipes are ready, they will be sunk into the layout trench.
That drawing, made on the ground, was previously excavated.
The companies are depositing
between four and five kilometers per day of pipes.
They are now ready to be injected with gas.
This will be done when the work is formally inaugurated, on June 20, from Tratayén (Neuquén).
The pipeline is estimated
to take a week to fill.
Techint and Sacde will pocket US$1 billion (in official dollars) for their work
.
They still have a complementary work to do.
And another contractor also lacks treatment plants.
They
will not be ready for June 20
.
But it can still be accelerated.
The complementary works may increase the transportation capacity of the gas pipeline to 21 million cubic meters.
The country consumes about 100 million cubic meters of gas per day, but reaches
a peak of 150 million
in winter.
In addition to replacing foreign LNG purchased for the winter to heat homes, the upgrade will allow
power plants to use gas instead of fuel
for their operation.
That process is cheaper for power generators.
Gerez calculates annual savings at US$5 billion, although this depends on the price of gas, an international
commodity
that fluctuates.
Entrepreneurs praise Gerez: “He is a machine.
She pushes you to work, work and work.
He fights sometimes even alone (in the midst of a convulsed government) ”, they say.
The second section of the gas pipeline
In the Government there are already plans for the second section of the gas pipeline.
This time
it would not be fully financed by the State,
but rather a 50/50 model.
One half would be contributed by the treasury and the other would come from
Saudi, Brazilian and Chinese capital interested in construction.
Will it be possible to start with the second section as soon as the first one ends?
In Enarsa and in Energy there is the intention, but
it will depend on the policy.
The workers who did the work are enthusiastic.
They will take a break when this section opens, but they confess that they are ready for the next case.
"It would be good
not to lose the drive
with which we came, the experience we acquired doing this work and participate in the second section," they say.
Damián Mindlin, from Sacde, confirms that
they will bid
for the construction of a second section.
And that they will probably
invite Techint
to be part -again- of a joint consortium.
Neuquén (special envoy)
NE
look also
Brazil promises funds for another section of the gas pipeline and two new border bridges
The State could take control of El Chocón and four other hydroelectric dams in Neuquén