Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 24 2022

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GasBridge becomes Brazil’s second

private firm to buy Bolivian gas directly

GASBRIDGE (GBC), a natural gas trading Brent for new contracts signed earlier this year.
company, has become the second privately Compagas has described these short-term
owned Brazilian firm to buy natural gas directly contracts with the trading companies as test
from Bolivia, without the national oil com- cases for Brazil’s newly liberalised gas market,
pany (NOC) Petrobras acting as an agent or which was until recently completely domi-
intermediary. nated by Petrobras. It has also acknowledged,
According to a report from Argus Media, though, that its suppliers may not be able to
GBC signed a gas supply contract with YPFB, provide 100% of the gas specified in their con-
Bolivia’s NOC, for the purchase of 2mn cubic tracts, owing to Bolivia’s recent decision to cut
metres per day. The term of the deal has not been exports to Brazil in order to boost shipments to
disclosed, but Argus said YPFB had agreed to Argentina.
provide gas on an interruptible basis, meaning Until recently, state-owned Petrobras was
that shipments may be halted or restarted at any the only organisation in Brazil that had the
time, depending on the availability of supplies. right to buy gas directly from Bolivia and then
In turn, it noted, GBC will be able to resell the sell it directly to customers. Under the reforms
Bolivian gas on a spot basis. adopted last year, though, private traders may
It went on to say that GBC would be using now procure up to 2.2 mcm per day of gas on
the Bolivian volumes to uphold its own supply their own. Tradener was the first to take advan-
contract with Compagas, the gas distribution tage of the opportunity. ™
company of Paraná State. In a pilot project,
Compagas has signed deals with both GBC and
Tradener, the first private Brazilian company to
buy gas directly from Bolivia, for the delivery of
10,000 cubic metres per day of gas over short
periods of 10 days or less.
It opted to keep the scope of these deals rela-
tively modest because it could not secure more
pipeline capacity from Petrobras, which still
controls most of the country’s gas transporta-
tion network, Argus added. It also agreed to pay
for the gas at a price equivalent to 13.5% of the
Brent crude price, according to Brazil’s National
Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels
(ANP), less than the NOC’s going rate of 16% of Brazil imports gas from Bolivia via a cross-border pipeline (Image: Petrobras)

Brazilian MPs vote to cap ICMS fuel tax

BRAZIL’S National Congress has weighed in gasoline and ethanol until the end of this year
on the effort to rein in domestic fuel prices by – before sending the bill to President Jair Bol-
passing a bill that caps the rate of the state ICMS sonaro for signature.
tax on petroleum products, natural gas, electric- The Brazilian government has said it expects
ity, public transport and telecommunications to the measure to bring fuel prices down by the
17-18%. equivalent of about $0.15 per litre for diesel and
Both houses of the National Congress voted $0.32 per litre for gasoline.
on the measure earlier this week. The upper However, the new policy will also push
chamber, the Senate, passed it on June 13, and federal spending up, as it will require Brasi-
the lower chamber, the House, passed it on June lia to compensate state governments for the
15. loss of revenue resulting from the capping of
In its vote, the House also approved certain ICMS rates. (ICMS tax receipts are one of the
changes – namely, an amendment that elimi- biggest sources of income for Brazil’s state
nates the federal PIS Cofins and CIDE taxes on governments.)

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 16•June•2022