Brazil's state-run energy company, Petrobras, has awarded a major contract to a Chinese firm to build a gas pipeline between southeast and northeast Brazil.
Petrobras signed the $239-million deal with China's state-run oil company, Sinopec, on Monday.
Under the contract, Sinopec will build a 300-kilometer stretch of pipeline in southeastern Brazil. It will connect the gas fields in Rio de Janeiro state to the city of Vitoria (in Espirito Santo state), farther north. The pipeline will have a daily capacity of 20 million cubic meters of gas.
Brazil plans to extend the pipeline from Vitoria to the town of Catu, in northeastern state of Bahia, covering a total distance of 1,300 kilometers. The entire project, known as Gasene, is aimed at improving gas distribution in northeastern Brazil.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
