Brazil’s federal energy company Petrobras has begun its public campaign to defend the construction of pipelines in the Amazon, according to local newspapers.
Brazil is faced with the dilemma of accepting some damage to the environment in the name of development and progress.
Petrobras wants to build two major pipelines in the Amazon, connecting the Urucu gas fields to Manaus, capital of Amazonas state, and Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia state. The company claims it will minimize the environmental impact.
Petrobras expects to receive environmental licensing for the Porto Velho pipeline by year-end. Ibama has already given a preliminary nod to the pipeline project but requested more information, primarily about the social impact, which should be presented within the next month.
The TNG Participações consortium of Petrobras, US-based El Paso and Brazilian investment group CS Participações will build the Porto Velho pipeline.
Pipelines are often criticized because they open up new trails through virgin forest, which in turn encourage unplanned population migration, and illegal activities such as logging and hunting.
Petrobras regional safety, environment & health coordinator Nelson Cabral de Carvalho said there was no chance the pipeline would encourage new immigrants to the region.
The company would raise a path some 30m wide along the 530km stretch of the pipeline, cutting down 1,800 hectares of forest. But two-thirds of these plants would be replaced after the pipeline is buried, and all access roads and bridges destroyed, he said.
The pipeline will be buried at a depth of some 1.5m, except when passing under rivers, when it will be buried 6m beneath the riverbed, he said.
Carvalho said the other alternative that has been suggested, transport using barges, involved far more environmental risk. Transporting sufficient volumes to Porto Velho would require 180 barges a day to move up and down the rivers, while transporting gas to Manaus would require a further 40 barges a day, which would be a major environmental risk, he said.
