Promon modernizes Transpetro’s gas pipeline network
- 10/18/2005



Promon is playing a major role in the modernization of Brazil’s gas pipelines. Distributing natural gas to all regions via a reliable network to supply this energy resource to all consumers is a significant challenge because of the country’s enormous size.
Promon’s contributions to this vast national effort include its recent completion of the Southeast Network Improvement project for Petrobras S.A., with project management by Petrobras Transportes (Transpetro).
According to Maurício Sgarbi, who managed the project for Promon, the complex geography involved made logistics one of the most challenging aspects of the project, executed under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract. Altogether, the Southeast Network Improvement Project comprised 131 different construction sites and 16 city gates, as well as intervention at various points along nine pipelines and at four refineries. For Ana Cristina Mattos, Transpetro’s project manager, successful completion and delivery of the project reflects the emphasis placed by both companies on cooperation and dialogue, based on their understanding that partnership was the best way to tackle the challenges raised on a daily basis.
Another important aspect is that although city gates in themselves are not complex facilities, each one involved all the difficulties and multidisciplinary constraints of a major project, not least in order to comply with the operating requirements and safety standards specified by Petrobras and Transpetro. For example, Promon managed the procurement and implementation of more than 5,000 components with a total of 108 suppliers. According to Paulo Campos, Transpetro’s project coordinator for the Northeast and Southeast Networks, “the most challenging part was completing the project without interrupting the supply of gas to 1 million homes, 16,600 businesses, 1,145 industrial consumers, 560 vehicular natural gas refueling stations and seven thermal power plants” connected to the Southeast Network.
Among the innovations introduced by Promon for this project was concentration of prefabricated regulator modules, or skids, at locations geographically close to intervention sites to optimize transportation and reduce the need for on-site services.
In April Promon also completed a city gate for TBG, the Petrobras subsidiary that owns the Brazilian sector of the Bolivia-Brasil gas pipeline, at Porto Feliz in São Paulo State.

Other important projects

Promon has delivered other important projects in the natural gas sector. The Southeast Network, for example, comprises some 1,300 kilometers of lines in sections referred to as Gasduc-I, Gasduc-II, Gascab-I, Gascab-II, Gasvol, Gaspal, Gasbel, Gasan, and overland portions of the Merluza-RPBC and Enchova-Cabiúnas pipelines. They will all be remotely operated by Transpetro’s new National Natural Gas Master Station in Rio de Janeiro. A delivery station implemented by Promon for TBG is part of the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline’s network of 40 city gates, of which 36 are now in operation.
TBG was set up in 1997 to build and operate the Bolivia-Brazil gas pipeline, the longest in Latin America, with a capacity to transport up to 30 million cubic meters per day. The Brazilian sector comprises 2,600 kilometers crisscrossing the Center-West, Southeast and South. All networks are totally monitored by satellite and certified under quality standards OHSAS 18001, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

Only 7% of energy consumption

Natural gas accounts for only 7% of total energy consumption in Brazil, compared with 24% in the United States, 27% in the United Kingdom and 47% in Argentina. Consumption of natural gas in Brazil cannot be increased without investing massively in transportation and distribution infrastructure. Petrobras therefore plans to spend US$53.6 billion on expansion of its gas pipeline network by 2010. Consumption is projected to rise to about 80 million cubic meters per day by the end of the decade as a result of this expansion. Natural gas utilization in Brazil currently breaks down as follows: industrial fuel 75.1%, heating 10.8%, automotive fuel 8%, petrochemical feedstock 2.4%.

About Promon

Founded in 1960, Promon is a Brazilian organization owned entirely by its employees. Its core business is the design, integration and implementation of projects and ventures for key infrastructure sectors such as energy, oil & gas, industry, civil works, telecommunications, and information technology.
The organization’s operations are conducted by four companies: Promon Engenharia and Promon Tecnologia, both wholly-owned subsidiaries; Trópico, a joint venture with Fundação CPqD and Cisco Systems; and UTE Bahia, a joint venture with Ecoluz Consultores Associados. The group also includes Fundação Promon de Previdência Social and Fundação Cultural Promon, as well as Instituto Razão Social, maintained in association with Instituto Camargo Corrêa and Gerdau.
Promon currently has a staff of some 650 professionals. For many years it has been recognized as one of the best places to work in Brazil (by every edition of the annual Guia Exame – As Melhores Empresas para Você Trabalhar, and number 1 in 2005), demonstrating the soundness of its human resources management practices and the success of its business model.