On Monday, the provincial government issued the tender for the purchase of 133,000 metres of pipes of different diameters to be used in the first stage of the Gas Pipeline Plan for Development, benefiting localities in the Belgrano, Caseros, Iriondo, San Lorenzo and San Cristóbal departments, for which a budget of 15,508,536,221 pesos will be allocated. The first stage of the programme's work was put out to tender last December, with an initial investment of 196,414,502,000 pesos.
The ceremony, held at the Government Headquarters in the city of Rosario, was headed by the Minister of Productive Development, Gustavo Puccini, who was accompanied by the President of Enerfé, Rodolfo Giacosa; the Secretary of Energy, Verónica Geese; the Secretary of Industrial Development, Guillermo Beccani; the President of the Chamber of Deputies of the province, Clara García; and the provincial senator Felipe Michlig, among other authorities.
During the activity, Puccini said: "This is one of the most important works that the province of Santa Fe is tendering: the gas pipelines. We are keeping our word, because of the importance of infrastructure, in this case energy infrastructure. We are talking about 600 kilometres of gas pipelines over the next three years. This is the beginning, 15%, the first stage, which we are putting out to tender and which we expect to finish by the end of the year. We hope that once the envelopes have been opened, the technical bids have been checked and everything is within budget, the execution of this first stage will begin".
"This work was already planned in previous administrations; we took the executive projects. There are 45 towns and cities, more than 120,000 Santa Fe residents and more than 250 companies that will see the arrival of gas at their doorstep in the next three years. This is an important project that we are carrying out with the company Enerfé", concluded the Minister of Production.
The bids
On the occasion, four bidders were presented. The first one, Tubos Argentinos S.A., quoted $2.822.170.831,76 for the Sudoeste Lechero Gas Pipeline, $2.388.563.789,22 for the Gas Pipeline Route 20, $335.714.352,95 for the Gas Pipeline Route 93-33 and $1.218.780.534,28 for the Gas Pipeline Route 14-17s.
The second offer is from the company M Royo S. A. and it offered $2.379.184.338,08 for the Sudoeste Lechero Gas Pipeline; $2.081.344.171,50 for the Gas Pipeline Route 20, $2.755,592,406.15 for the Route 34 Gas Pipeline, $7,517,281,307.80 and $283,743,750.07 for the Route 93-33 Gas Pipeline and $1,033,921,104.92 for the Route 14-17s Gas Pipeline.
The third and fourth offers correspond to the firms Tenaris SIAT S.A. and Orlandi Industrial y Comercial S.A., which were rejected for not presenting a policy.
Optimising the energy matrix
The Gas Pipelines for Development Plan of the Government of Santa Fe contemplates the construction of six trunk pipelines for a total of 610 kilometres, which will reach 45 localities in 10 departments, benefiting 250 industries and more than 120,000 Santa Fe residents. The province will build five of them (the pipes tendered today will be for these pipelines), while the company Litoral Gas will be in charge of the remaining one.
The construction of these trunk pipelines will allow the optimisation of the energy matrix of the province of Santa Fe and will also reduce costs for a more competitive production. At the same time, this infrastructure will enable the future decentralised generation of electricity.
Six gas pipelines
The gas pipelines cover the following localities:
>> Sudoeste Lechero Southwest Gas Pipeline: Arrufó, Villa Trinidad, San Guillermo, Suardi and Colonia Rosa.
>> Gas pipeline Ruta Provincial N° 20: Tortugas, Montes de Oca, Bouquet, María Susana, Piamonte, Landeta, Schiffner, Las Petacas, Castelar and Crispi.
>> Gas pipeline Route 34: Luis Palacios, Lucio V. López, Salto Grande, Totoras, Clason, San Genaro, Centeno, Las Bandurrias, Casas, Cañada Rosquín and San Martín de las Escobas.
>> Gas pipeline Provincial Route 93 - 33 will favour Chañar Ladeado, Berabevú, Los Quirquinchos, Godeken and Cañada del Ucle.
>> Gas pipeline Provincial Route 14 - 17s to Coronel Arnold, Muñoz, Arminda, Villa Mugueta and Fuentes.
>> Gas pipeline Provincial Route 13s - 90 (in charge of Litoral Gas) will take the service to Albarellos, Coronel Bogado, La Vanguardia, Santa Teresa, Peyrano, Máximo Paz, Alcorta, Juncal and Carreras.
