Colombia would be shielded from any emergency that could put the natural gas supplythanks to the entry into operation of an infrastructure that Promigás and Transportadora de Gas Internacional (TGI) have been working on for years.
It is about the interconnection of the natural gas transportation systems of the Caribbean Coast and the interior of the country that will come into use towards the end of March.
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Although the Promigás and TGI gas pipelines were built more than 45 and 25 years ago, respectively, they were not connected in La Guajira, so it was impossible to carry or bring natural gas from the coast to the center of the country and vice versa, in case of any supply contingency.
The system will debut with the transportation of 7 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (mcfd) that will flow from the interior of the country -exactly from the Ecopetrol’s Cusiana Fieldin Casanare- to the Ballena Station, owned by Promigás and located in the municipality of Manaure, La Guajira.
It will offer greater reliability to the gas system, thereby contributing to the dynamism and integration of the natural gas market.
This will be possible using a counterflow enabled from Barrancabermeja to Ballena by TGI, a subsidiary of Grupo Energía Bogotá (GEB).
Subsequently, with the connection of the TGI-Promigás systems that was made in the area of La Guajira, the gas will be transported to Cartagena to finally be consumed in Reficar as raw material. However, this hydrocarbon will be available to the entire market, within the regulation rules established by the current regulation.
For the interconnection of the Promigás and TGI gas pipelines to become a reality, it was necessary to build the Ballena-Hato Nuevo section in La Guajira, with which Colombia ceased to be two countries in material for networks to distribute natural gas.
The president of Promigás, Juan Manuel Rojas, assured that this new infrastructure offers greater reliability to the gas system, «contributing with this to the dynamism and integration of the natural gas market in the country and providing security in supply and diversification in the offer of this resource».
Meanwhile, Mónica Contreras, president of TGI, commented that this is «great news for the sector aimed at having a national natural gas market, promoting the decarbonization of industriesthermal agents and other demand segments».
To the 7 mcfd that will be made available to the petrochemical market in Cartagena, there are added the 50 mcfd of transportation capacity that will be shown from the Caribbean Coast to the interior of the country. for the entire natural gas sector.
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This is great news for the sector aimed at having a national natural gas market
In this way, there will be new supply options before eventual natural gas deficits or the offer that may appear may be transported, regardless of where the sources of supply are located.
This means that the interconnection of the two large natural gas transportation systems in Colombia reduces the probability that Colombians can face each other. natural gas shortage such as the one that was reduced in August 2021 as a result of a landslide that affected the tube that transports this hydrocarbon from the Campo de Cusiana to the interior of the country.
This was added to an operational failure in a valve in Cusiana, which partially limited the supply of natural gas to the center of the country. Due to these contingencies, several departments were affected and for several hours suspended the supply of this fuel for the industrial and vehicular sector.
The need for interconnection and bidirectionality of the system was diagnosed by the Mining and Energy Planning Unit (Upme) and the Ministry of Mines and Energy, within the Natural Gas Supply Plan, with the purpose of enabling a robust, reliable system with Security in your supply.
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To this end, said plan currently mandates the need to have projects that incorporate a capacity to transport natural gas from the interior to the coast of 100 mcfd and in the opposite direction for 170 mcfd.
For these capabilities to be a reality, TGI and Promigas They will ensure that it is necessary for the Energy and Gas Regulation Commission (Creg) to conclude the assessment of the projects and inform the transporters so that they can execute them.
Thus, said capacity will be available to the entire natural gas market in the country, allowing transactions and commercial commitments between the different fields on the Coast and the demand from the interior, and vice versa, achieving an interconnected natural gas market.